Longing of the Soul
by IdiAmeanDada
Summary: Hideki is finally in college and getting ready for finals. He and Chi were happily living together in the dorms when an event happens that changes their lives forever.
1. Change is not a Destination

-1-

_My name is Hideki Motosuwa. It's been a long year and a half since the 'incident' on top of the apartment. Talk about scary! I had just come to terms about my feelings for my persocom Chi, and then her sister Freya, who was inside her all along, took over. She tested me, asked me if I loved her 'in that way'. "Of course I do!" I told her. Freya then proceeded to explain to me why Chi could not be with me 'in that way', but I didn't care. I love Chi for Chi, and if that meant that we couldn't do certain things together, then that's just the way it was going to be. Freya was apparently satisfied with that, and gave control back to Chi._

_ Not that I don't have those wants and desires. Lord knows if you looked at what was in the bottom drawer of my bedside table, you would get an eyeful! But I cannot lose Chi._

_ So enough of that, I'm sure you want to know what happened next! Well, I FINALLY finished the cram school. I got accepted into college, well a tech school at least! My parents were so proud, they even started sending me money so that I no longer had to work (bless their pointed little heads). Now Chi and I live in the men's dorm. There's a strict NO GIRLS policy, but since Chi is a persocom, she is allowed to stay with me. We pretty much have a routine now, school, school, and more school. If we can, we try to sleep, but that's kind of hard with the Dorm Dad. He gets us up every morning before dawn to work out. And I thought Sumomo's 'wakey-wakey' exercises were bad!_

_ Oh! Speaking of whom, yes, I still have Sumomo and Kotoko. When I first got here, all the guys marveled at how I had three persocoms. They didn't seem to believe me that I found Chi in the trash, my friend Shinbo gave me Sumomo, and that we effectively 'relieved' Kojima of Kotoko so that we could prove that he had stolen Chi that one time. There's no way I could be THAT lucky, they said. Dorm Dad, who insists we call him Senpai, told me that there was only one other person he had ever met with that kind of luck. _

_ Anyway, the school year is almost over. With my dedication and Chi's support, my grades are, well, they are….. (barely passing). I can get them up if I rededicate myself to my studies! Well, try. At least I will have Chi there encouraging me with "Do your best!" God I love it when she says that!_

XXX

"You really are hopeless, Master," chides the tiny persocom Kotoko as she sits on top of the small television in the corner of the small room.

Hideki rolls his eyes as he opens the microwave and removes a bowl of instant ramen he warmed up. "Yeah yeah, don't remind me."

The dorm room is sparsely furnished, with just a television, bed, a few chairs, a desk, and a small table. There are two closets along the wall next to the door with a mirror and a bench containing the microwave between them. It was normally built for two people to cohabitate, but Chi had taken a part time job at one of the local bakeries so that they can afford the room for themselves.

Sitting at the table, Chi watches Hideki as he approaches with his food. "Is Hideki sad that he did not go out with Senpai and the others?"

"No Chi, you don't need to worry about that," he replies as he sits down. That was definitely the truth. What is also true is that he is purposely avoiding situations where there might be any sort of temptation. Senpai had taken everyone in the dorm out to a karaoke bar earlier. That usually meant drinking and girls and no persocoms allowed! This was something that happened from time to time, and Hideki was starting to wonder whether it was done on purpose. That's because Senpai always left some errands or tasks for him to do while they were out. This time it had been to pick up and shake out the mats in the hallways of the two story building they lived in. It took Chi and him nearly four hours to complete.

Senpai had also asked them to call some parts company in the United States at eleven o'clock and order a part for a motorcycle he was putting together. Apparently he has an account with them, so it should be easy enough, and they were expecting the call. Glancing up at the wall clock, it reads fifteen minutes until eleven.

Hideki looks across at his persocom girlfriend and gives her a wane smile. She is dressed in a pink blouse and matching frilly dress that covered her down to mid thigh. Her customary floor length blonde hair flows down her back and under the chair. "Hideki is sad that he has to stay with Chi?" she asks with a touch of sadness in her eyes. Most people would not have noticed the emotion since most persocoms were incapable of showing much more than a pleasant face all the time. Of course, she is different, being a chobit.

"No, why would I be sad?"

Chi gets up and walks around the table, her blonde hair flowing behind her. "Because Hideki is always sacrificing for Chi," she says as she stops in front of him.

Hideki looks into her eyes and smiles. "We sacrifice for each other," he says and reaches up and squeezes her hand. "It's what couples do."

Before he can do anything, Chi bends down and throws her arms around his shoulders, then catches his lips with her own. As they share a deep kiss, Hideki slips his arms around her waist. She responds by sliding into his lap, her legs straddling him in the chair. His hands wander down her back as she presses into him.

"Danger! Danger! Danger!" cries Sumomo from beside the television.

Her alarm nearly causes Hideki to fall out of the chair with Chi. The laptop persocom, clad in her customary pink and white outfit, had previously been happily twirling away next to Kotoko in standby mode. Now she is frantically jumping up and down on the floor, holding up a round disk. "Master forgot to put the disk back in the rental box before he took it back to the store!"

"Dammit!" yells Hideki as he stands after Chi slides off. "I can't afford a late fee!" He rushes over and grabs the disk looking up at the clock, its ten till. The video store closes at eleven. "I can make it!"

"Do your best!" exclaims Chi, clapping her hands together as she does.

Hideki smiles as he rushes to the door and throws it open. "I'll be right back," he says, then leaves, slamming the door behind him.

"He won't make it," grouses Kotoko. The red and white clad laptop persocom jumps down from her perch, then uses the chair to climb up onto the table and picks up the piece of paper Hideki's senpai had left him. "And what about the phone call he was about to place?"

"Chi will make the call!" exclaims the blonde persocom.

"Right!" exclaims Sumomo as she climbs up on the table and joins Kotoko. She whips out her whistle and blows it loudly. "This is your eight minute warning!"

Kotoko slaps her forehead in frustration. "Oh dear god."

Sumomo begins dancing around, further irritating Kotoko. "I know!" yells the exuberant persocom. "Kotoko and Sumomo will go into screensaver mode and dance around while Chi takes pictures!"

"Chi!" exclaims the blonde persocom in excitement as she jumps out of her chair. She runs over to Hideki's desk and fishes out his digital camera from the top drawer. She turns it on and focuses it on the two laptops on the table. Sumomo dances and twirls around Kotoko, who is standing with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

Sumomo pauses for a moment to admonish her stoic friend. "I said go into screensaver mode!"

"I am in screensaver mode."

Chi smiles at her two small friends as she starts taking pictures. With a little encouragement, Kotoko gets into the act a little by at least smiling as additional photographs are taken. Finally, and to Kotoko's relief, Sumomo stops and looks up at the larger machine. "Its eleven o-clock! Time to make the phone call!"

Chi puts the camera down on the desk and returns to the table.

XXX

In a brightly lit room, a black haired woman sits in a chair that seems to magically float above the ground. Screens showing scenes from peoples' lives float around. In front of her, an old fashion and quite ornate telephone sits. The woman watches the phone expectedly.

She suddenly perks up in her seat, a smile across her face. "What's this?" she says out loud to no one. "I can feel it coming, another soul calling out to moi!" She pauses dramatically for effect even though no one is watching. "Ready when you are, mon amie!"

XXX

Chi reaches down and picks up the paper that Kotoko had earlier. "Will Sumomo dial this for Chi?" she asks as she hands it over to the pink and white persocom.

"Hia!" exclaims Sumomo in excitement. She takes the paper and looks it over. "Error! Error! Some of these digits are not valid! Please provide the valid digits for the person you are trying to reach."

"Give me that, you idiot," growls Kotoko as she grabs the paper out of Sumomo's hand. "Hmm, this one looks like a nine, and this one looks like…" she trails off as she tries to work out the numbers on the paper. Chi looks on expectedly as she works. Sumomo begins to dance around again as she waits. After a moment, the red and white laptop hands the slip back to her hyperactive companion. "Here, happy now?"

Sumomo again looks it over, then back to Kotoko. "Hai!" she confirms. "Now connecting." Her expression goes blank. A clicking sound can be heard as white lines streak across her eyes. After a moment, someone answers.

_"I've been so waiting for your call! I am with the Earth Assistance Hotline! I can't wait to come and take care of you in person! Wait for me!"_

A click on the line, and the call is ended. Sumomo comes back to reality and sees Kotoko's dumbfounded look as she stares at her. "What?"

"Were you just hacked or something?"

"Performing high level diagnostic," reports the little pink persocom. After a moment, "Negative, no signs of tampering have been found!"

Chi looks at the little persocoms, confused by the sudden turn of events. "But what does it mean to 'take care of you in person'?"

As if to answer her question, the digital camera on the desk behind them begins to whir and pop. On its own, it falls onto its back. Chi steps back as a bright light blasts forth from the lens, creating a circle on the ceiling above. To the amazement of those watching, brown boots attached to lithe legs begin to descend from the ceiling where the light is touching. The rest of the body follows until a tall woman is before them wearing what appears to be a black bikini and wide leather belts that cover her chest and go up over her shoulders and down her back, giving one the impression she has wings.

XXX

She does not fall all the way to the floor, instead she floats just above it. "Hello there!" says the strange woman, her eyes closed as she makes a dramatic pose. "I am Peorth of the Earth Assistance Hotline. Goddess First Class…."

"Chi?"

Peorth stops abruptly at the interruption. Looking around the room, she sees three persocoms in front of her and frowns. "Um, where is….."

Before she can finish, a loud warbling wail comes from the small red and white one, causing her to press her hands to her ears to drown out the noise. At the same time, the small white and pink one is near hysterics.

"Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger! You have exactly ten seconds to leave the premises or Sumomo will call the police!"

As the small persocom starts her countdown, Peorth waves her hand dismissively. Immediately, the wailing and countdown stop as the two small forms crumple into a heap on the table. "I really hate those things," she mutters to herself as she glances around, her gaze stopping on a short, human sized persocom with long blonde hair. "Now why didn't you shut down? No matter, as long as you play nice!"

It just stares at her with what can only pass as a confused look.

"So tell me, my friend. Where can I find Chi Motosuwa?"

The persocom blinks. "Chi?"

"That's right, Chi M-O-T-O-S-U-W-A," says Peorth, sounding out the syllables as if she were trying to communicate with someone who did not quite speak the language.

A smile shoots across the face of the little persocom. She claps and jumps up and down in excitement. "I am Chi Motosuwa!"

"Eh?"

"I am Chi Motosuwa!" she repeats. "M-O-T-O-S-U-W-A"

Peorth stares at the blonde persocom, dumbfounded by what she had just heard. "How did…. But you're a…." she stammers out, then stops and collects herself. "Ok Urd, jokes over! Come on out!" she calls out to the room, then starts rummaging through it picking up things and looking under them. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"

Chi starts following Peorth, replacing whatever she moves back to its original position. "Chi does not understand," she says. "Chi is Chi, and always has been since Hideki found Chi."

The goddess turns and faces the blonde persocom. "You should not have been able to call that number!" she exclaims in frustration. "No one without a soul should be able to!"

"Chi does not have a soul?" replies Chi. Saddened by the proclamation, she looks away for a moment. "But Chi loves. Chi gets sad. Chi gets happy." She places her hands on her chest and looks back at the goddess. "And Chi hurts here when Hideki is not with Chi or when Hideki is sad."

"Uhg, this is so confusing! I wish Skuld were here," moans Peorth as she holds her head in her hands. "Ok, just a second, I need to make a phone call. Would you happen to have a working phone here?"

"No, Sumomo is our phone," replies Chi, pointing to one of the two inactive persocoms on the table.

"Well that figures," replies the goddess in frustration. "I'll just have to use mine then. Merde, the roaming charges will kill me." Peorth pulls out a sleek cell phone with rose prints on its face. She opens it and places it to her ear and speaks in to it. "Call Earth Assistance Admin Center."

_"Earth Assistance Admin Center, mobile one, calling!"_

Peorth walks over and sits down in one of the chairs. After she does so, she begins tapping her feet as she waits for someone to pick up. Absentmindedly, she forms a rose and begins to twirl it in her hand as she waits. Finally, someone picks up. She listens in as the goddess on the other end of the line introduces herself. "This is Peorth, Goddess First Class, Type Two, Unlimited. I am calling about case number alpha-alpha-three-two-seven-five-eight-one-zero-omega-victor. Yes, I will hold."

XXX

Chi stares at the goddess, not knowing what to think. She gives a worried glance over to her two small companions on the table. They had not moved since the goddess' arrival. She hoped that there was no permanent damage to them. After a moment, the stranger starts talking on the phone again. "Help me to understand how a persocom was able to call the Earth Assistance Hotline and summon me? ... Inconceivable! This is a machine! ... There just no way ….… FINE! I will check for myself."

Peorth puts the phone down on the table, stands, and approaches Chi. "Stand still deary, this won't hurt a bit." She then closes her eyes and places her hands on the blonde persocom's shoulder. Immediately, a slight glow beings to emanate from Chi, and she begins to feel a warmth inside of her chest. It is similar to when Hideki first professed his love for her, and she to him. She closes her eyes and basks in the feeling as the goddess maintains her hold. After a moment, Peorth breaks contact and steps back, a look of utter shock on her face. "By the Almighty, what kind of magic is this?!"

The goddess quickly turns and grabs up her phone again. "How can this be?! Who's magic did this?" she yells into the receiver as she continues to stare at Chi. "Its just that ….. No, I did not detect any residual traces …. But how? ... You're right …. Yes, yes, I will get to it now ….… No, there's nothing more I need …..." Peorth slowly closes the phone and falls back into the chair. "I need a drink."

"Chi can get water!"

"No, don't worry about it," replies the dark haired goddess, who then slams her fist onto the table. "Sacreblue! Have I messed this up! What to do ….. I know! We can start over!" Peorth jumps up and steps over to the desk where the camera lays. She waves her arms around as if she is measuring something. All the while, she mumbles to herself. "Lets see, the camera is there, and I came down here…..Oh! And my hands were like this… got to make this right!"

Chi watches, enraptured by the actions of the goddess. She has never met anyone quite like her before.

After a few moments, Peorth looks up and smiles a Chi, then raises her arms above her head as if she were twirling like a ballerina. "Bonjour madame! I am Peorth, Goddess First Class, Type Two, Unlimited!" she exclaims while crossing her arms across her chest and giving a slight bow. "I am here because your soul called out to me for assistance!"

Chi gives the goddess a puzzled look. "Chi's soul? So now you say Chi does have a soul?" While she knew the definition of it from Wikipedia, she had no concept of what it was exactly. "What is a soul?"

Peorth smiles and reaches down and catches Chi's hand in her own. She raises it above her head and twirls her around as if performing a ballet. "My dear, it is the essence of who you are! Your spirit! Your drive!" She stops the little persocom as she is facing her, and puts her hands on Chi's shoulders. "When you told me earlier that you felt pain within your chest from your feelings, those were the feelings that came straight from your soul! I was just too ignorant to see it at the time. Your soul is in pain, Chi. I can see that plain as day now. So I have come to you from heaven to grant you a wish!"

"Chi can make a wish?"

"Why yes!" exclaims the goddess. "Whatever you heart's desire!" She releases Chi and twirls around. When she stops, her hands are clasped together. She brings them up to her shoulder while leaning her head in and giving a knowing wink. "And I believe I know what your heart's desire is, Chi Motosuwa! All you have to do is say the words and I will grant it!" Peorth raises her hands to the ceiling, as if she were basking in some unseen praise and adulation. Chi can almost see the stars in her eyes. "This will be a special event! A first! It will be my pièce de résistance!"

The goddess lifts off the ground and begins to float. She twists her body around so that she is lying prone in the air, resting her chin on her arms at eye level with the blonde persocom. "So tell me your wish."

"Chi wishes Hideki to be happy!" she blurts out.

The goddess flips upside down and stares. "I'm sorry mon amie, but I don't think you want me to wave my hand and make him happy myself." She turns herself back upright and floats a little closer. Almost nose to nose, she pokes Chi in the chest. "I think you want to make him happy yourself."

Chi blinks at the goddess. She was right of course. Ever since they had declared each other to be the 'one just for me', it has been her mission in life to do what she can to make Hideki happy. She could not just wish for him to be happy, she had to think of something that she could do herself to make is so.

She thinks back to all the things that they did together, cooking, going for walks to school or work or wherever, playing video games, sleeping. The latter filled her with joy as it was the one time they could be closest to each other. That reminded her of the events of the day, where he had sacrificed being able to go out with the other men to be with her. Despite his protestations, she knew the real reason; he was avoiding temptation. She remembers what happened before Hideki had rushed out and warm feelings come over her at the memory. In the year and a half since, they had done a few 'things', but he would never allow it to go too far. She was painfully aware of the reason for that, as well as the fact that it frustrated him.

Chi gets a flash of inspiration and looks up at the goddess. "Chi knows what to wish for!"

Peorth smiles as she shifts in the air and brings herself to a standing position. "Ready when you are, chéri."

XXX

When Hideki had arrived at the video store, he had just made it. After explaining the situation to the clerk, they had gone to check. Sure enough, the disk was missing from the box. Much to his chagrin, the clerk explained that they would not have charged him as it appeared that the clerk that took the box when he brought it back earlier in the day had failed to check. "That's just my luck."

On the way back to the dorm, he starts to take stock in his current situation. He wasn't an idiot, having known for a while that Senpai and the others were taking advantage of his relationship with Chi. They had originally thought it was crazy that he was in love with the little persocom. There was actually discussion at one point that the no girls policy should apply to her due to their special relationship. In the end, though, they were convinced otherwise. For the first month or two afterwards, he had endured teasing and joking about it, but not as much as expected. It ended after punching out one of the other residents who had asked to borrow Chi for the night. After that, everyone started to take her presence for granted.

That was when the 'excursions' began. Since they were open to the men of the dorm only, per the proclamation of Senpai, Hideki had always chosen to stay behind. When he did so, there was always a list of chores to do. "That's starting to make me angry!" shouted Hideki to know one in particular. "I think I'm going to march up to them and tell them exactly what I think of that!"

"SHUT UP! There are people trying to sleep!"

His face goes beet red as he realizes he was once again giving voice to his internal thoughts. "Sorry!" he blurts out and starts to run again. The only comfort he has in his life was Chi, and he was wasting time.

A bright light illuminates the sky, causing Hideki to skid to a stop. He watches as a column of light flashes up from the ground and into the sky, along with what sounds like an explosion. The clouds seem to part, as if accepting a gift from the Earth. The wind picks up around him. It feels as if it is being drawn to the source of the light. For a moment, he just stands there and marvels at it. Then, a memory deep down reminds him of another night, approximately a year and a half ago. He does some rough calculations in his head, and he realizes that it is emanating from the same direction as the dorm.

"CHI!" he exclaims and starts running faster than ever. Did another embedded program go off? Did something happen to the dorm, like a gas explosion or something? Hideki's breathing becomes labored, his heart pounding so hard he can hear it in his head. He can't tell if it was from the exertion of running or the terror he feels that something awful has befallen his 'one just for me'.

As he rounds the corner and enters the parking lot in front of the dorm, he immediately notices that it is indeed still standing and lets out a sigh of relief. Looking up at the building, Hideki sees there is no light on in the room that he shares with Chi. It flickers on and off for a second, setting him off again, bolting into the building, up the stairs and around the corner to 202.

"CHI!" he cries as he bursts through the door. It looks like a typhoon has hit the room. All of their personal effects are strewn across the floor, as if something had swept aside everything that was not nailed down. The overhead light flickers again, and comes back on, illuminating the room. In the middle of the floor, he sees Chi crumpled over on her side. He immediately dashes over and falls to his knees beside her. He gently picks her up and cradles her in his arms. "Chi, are you alright?" he pleads.

There is no response. "Chi! Wake up!" he cries desperately to no avail. Tears start to flow down his cheeks as he holds her head to his chest. "Please wake up, I can't live without you," he whispers.

He hears a soft moan come from her. He is puzzles at first because he did not remember her ever moaning like this after waking up. His elation pushes all that aside after he loosens his grip and sees Chi looking up at him with a smile on her lips. "Oh Chi! I thought I had lost you!" he blurts out and pulls her up into an embrace. He revels in her closeness, the softness of her body.

Then, he notices something different. Something alien he had not felt from her ever before. As he realizes this, Chi pulls herself up closer to him. She kisses the nape of his neck the whispers into his ear. "Chi's wish came true."

As the realization comes to him, he pushes her away and holds her at arm's length. Taking stock of what he felt and what she said, he looks her over with a critical eye. He immediately notices the rise and fall of her chest, something that persocoms generally don't bother to simulate. He looks up at her face, and sees that there is something missing. The tell-tale sign of a persocom, the pink and white data port covers that took the place of her ears, were gone. He reaches up and slides her blonde hair out of the way and sees very human looking ears. His eyes widen in surprise.

"What happened?" he blurts out.

"A goddess appeared to Chi and granted me a wish!"

"Goddess? Wish? I don't understand!" exclaims Hideki.

Chi smiles and lovingly caresses the side of his face. "A goddess appeared to Chi," she repeats. "She granted Chi a wish. Chi wished to be human like Hideki!"

He could see that she was almost giddy as she began to describe what happened over the last twenty-five minutes, beginning from when he rushed out the door. Her story is interrupted by the mention of Kotoko and Sumomo, which brings about a frantic search for the tiny laptops. They are eventually found and reactivated where they both confirm the appearance of a stranger who mysteriously materialized from the ceiling. They had both started to sound an alarm, but registered a fatal system-stop error immediately after. Chi continues the story and Hideki can only sit and listen, mouth agape as she relates what had happened next. In the end, she lost consciousness immediately after making the wish, and woke up in his arms.

_Is this for real?_ As he stares at her in shock, nothing else registers except what is before him. Not even the bellowing voice from the other side of the door. "Motosuwa!" In his mind, he can think of only one way to confirm. He hears a key in the lock of his door, but he pays it no mind. Instead, he grabs hold of Chi and pulls her to him, putting his ear against her chest.

He sharply draws in a breath as he hears the faint lub-dub of a heartbeat.

The door to his room opens to reveal a tall, dark-skinned, hulking man wearing a plain white t-shirt and blue jeans. His shoulders take up almost the entire doorway. Hideki breaks away from Chi and looks up at the burly man. "Senpai?"

As Motosuwa's senpai steps into the room, the light glints off his bald head. "Motosuwa, did yous make da phone…" He stops in mid sentence as the scene before him registers in his brain. It's not the couple in a seemingly intimate embrace that he sees, it's the discarded persocom data port covers lying unnoticed at the feet of the two residents. His Neanderthal like uni-brow furrows at the scene as he jumps to the wrong conclusion. "Yous gotta be kidd'en me, Motosuwa. You mean the 'com's been a girl all this time?!"

The larger man turns back out the door. "Hey boyz! Git over here! We gots us a rule breaker!" he yells, his voice eching down the hall. Several people parrot the call as they suddenly begin to appear and congregate just outside the door to Hideki's room. He then turns back towards Hideki and Chi. "I gots to give it to ya, Motosuwa. Yous had us all fooled. But the cats outa da bag now. Yous knows da rules, no girls in da dorms! Do ya have any'thin ta say 'bout this?"

Hideki, still in shock over something much more important than a rule infraction, looks up but says nothing. The larger man grumbles to himself, then passes judgment.

"He who dares break the rules, GET'S KICKED OUT!" he rumbles.

As if that was their queue, the rest of the residents file into the room. Some of them grab hold of Hideki and Chi, others start grabbing their things, all the while chanting 'kicked out' over and over again. They carry the pair out of the room, down the stairs, and deposit them on the ground just outside the side door to the building, along with some of their things. Hideki sits in stunned silence, staring off into space, while Chi sits and watches him.

After a minute, Kotoko gets up from where she was unceremoniously dropped, dusts herself off, and marches around in front of the couple. "So master, what do we do now?"

XXX

After slamming the door, Tamiya Toraichi turns and follows the others upstairs. As the younger men disperse back to their rooms, he stops and reflects on what had just happened. Now in his late-forties, he rubs his recently shaven head absentmindedly. His hairline had recently receded, leaving him almost completely hairless on top, with tufts of grey hair above his ears. The boys in the dorm had suggested that he shave it, which he had finally done. Now he was wondering why he never did it in the past.

As he passes Motosuwa's old door, he recalls something that happened in this very room when he was still in school. This incident seemed awfully similar to that one, but he decided it was not on the level of déjà vu. Just as in this case, they had found the offender breaking the No Girls Allowed policy. The subjects had also been kicked out immediately without possibility of appeal.

Almost as an afterthought, he steps into the room, goes to the window on the other side, opens it, and sticks his head out. "Motosuwa! Be sure to send us yer new address so we can send yous yer stuff!"

As he pulls his head back in, he looks up and sees a hole in the ceiling. It looks just like the one from the previous incident he had been thinking of. _Now dat's just damn weird._

* * *

A/N: Any similarities to Ah! My Goddess are completely intentional!

I have always considered Keiichi and Hideki to be kindred spirits in a way. I mean, lets face it. They both have trouble dealing with women, they are super devoted to their girlfriends, and they both like porn! (Ok, Hideki a _little_ more so). Anyway, this was originally a one shot that just dealt with Chi getting a wish from some ramdom goddess while Hideki was out. It kind of blew up and threatened to melt my brain if I did not put fingers to keyboard.

Yes, I know there is another fanfic that deals with a wish for Chi to be human. I mean no disrespect and you will just have to take my word that this concept was born in me before i read that other story. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. There will be a chapter 2, I promise!


	2. Hope is not a strategy

-2-

Hideki is running, but he does not know exactly where he is going. It has been almost three hours since this latest incident. Right after they had been kicked out of the dorm, he had done something that would have been unthinkably horrible just half an hour before.

He had rejected Chi.

XXX

Chi is running, but she does not know where she is or where she is going. She thought it had been quite some time since the latest incident, but is unable to keep track. Her internal clock appears to be no longer functioning. Right after they had been kicked out, something happened that shocked her system so much, she had run away.

XXX

He deserved what had happened, and he was kicking himself for it even now. Chi had tried to hug him, to be close. In hindsight, she was probably seeking reassurance, but he was still reeling from what had just transpired, and he literally pushed her away. To make matters worse, he asked her who she was and where the real Chi was. _Not one of my most stellar moments._

He hoped there was a way to make it right.

XXX

It was so confusing! Chi was hurt by his actions, but what happened next was something that she had never experienced before. As a persocom, she was programmed to display a certain set of emotions. As a chobit, those emotions seemed much more than just programs. It was completely incomprehensible under the three laws of robotics, and completely alien to her. It had felt as if her insides had suddenly caught fire. Not the warm feelings of love, something more sinister. For a second, she literally saw the world in a red tinge. It was at that moment that Chi had actually slapped Hideki, hard enough to make a mark.

She hoped it did not hurt too much.

XXX

Hideki held a hand to his cheek, remembering the pain and sensations afterward. The impromptu attitude adjustment had done its job. She was Chi again in his eyes. But what he saw on her face, he was afraid, would haunt him for the rest of his life. The look of utter betrayal was seared into his brain as if by a hot iron. The tears, impossible for her mere minutes before, caused his heart to clench. Then her face turned to a mask of confusion, and she turned and ran. He was too paralyzed from what had just happened to immediately follow. When he did, she was gone.

He hoped he could catch up.

XXX

Had Chi made a mistake? She wondered, not for the first time since her departure, if the wish made it impossible for her to be Hideki's 'one just for me'. The thought tore at her soul like a lion attacking its prey. A sour feeling overcame her, and for a second, she felt as if something were coming up her throat. Grabbing her stomach, she staggered to one side of the alley she was in. Another wave hit her, and she doubled over.

Using one arm, she steadied herself against the wall. Confusion and worry overtaking her, a third wave hits, and her whole body tenses. A vile tasting substance filled her mouth, forcing it open so that it could spill out onto the ground. More waves immediately follow, coming so fast, she cannot breathe.

XXX

Hideki stopped for a moment to catch his breath. As he did so, he kicked himself mentally. He had been so wrapped up in school and his relationship with Chi that he had not developed as tight a network of friends for support like what he had back in Tokyo. Here in Nekomi, all he had were mostly acquaintances. There was no Shinbo, no Manager Ueda, no Kokubunji, and especially no Miss Hibiya to support him. Oh, he had no doubt that he could call them, and they would come. But it would be hours, and a lot could happen in that time.

Then a thought occurred to him. There was one person whom he hoped would help!

XXX

Chi gasps for breath as the retching eases. The stars and tunnel vision she had begun to experience also subsided. When she stands, she suddenly feels light headed, and steadies herself against the wall again. All these alien emotions and feelings, they are starting to overwhelm her. She struggles to maintain her lucidity. After a moment, it begins to pass.

A noise rings out behind her. She looks, fearful of what she would see, but there is nothing. Still, there is a presence in the area. She had been too preoccupied before to detect it. Something is watching her, and it scares her. After a moment, she bolts down the alley again, hoping to get away from whatever is menacing her.

XXX

Using Sumomo's GPS instructions, Hideki doubles back and is now standing in front of an apartment not far from where the dorms are. He was not sure why he had not thought of his friend before. Perhaps the betrayal of his dorm-mates was clouding his judgment. Inside is possibly the only true friend he has in town, at least he hoped so. Tentatively, he reaches up to knock on the door.

XXX

As Chi runs, she can feel that whatever she is running from still behind her. She can feel herself become more and more scared as she continues on her course. So frightened, she begins to lose the ability to focus on anything else other than running. She comes up on a turn and blindly rounds the corner, running headlong into a large man. Her fall to the ground causes her to regain some of her faculties. She looks up at who she ran in to and hopes that he will help.

XXX

Suddenly roused from his sleep by a loud banging noise, a nineteen year old man looks up at his alarm clock. It's close to three in the morning. A flash of irritation overtakes him for a moment. _What could be so important that they had to come at this hour?_ As the banging commences again, he sighs in exasperation and sits up in the bed. Dangling his feet over the side of the bed, he uses them to find his slippers. Reaching down, he grabs the shirt he discarded the night before from the floor and slips it on. Now mildly presentable, he slides a hand through his brown hair, then gets up and pads out of the bedroom and towards the door.

More pounding quickens his pace. _Damn, what are the neighbors going to think?_ He hears someone calling his name as he approaches. "Alright! I'm coming!" he yells. The pounding stops obediently. He peeks through the eye hole to make sure it is someone he knows, then opens it. He is nearly tackled by the person on the other side.

"Kei!" cries Hideki as he grabs hold of his friend. "You've got to help me! Chi is missing!"

XXX

Twenty minutes before, the cat had been minding its own business, sniffing through some scraps that the fish market would purposely leave out. Thus was the routine for the cat, home for a day or so, then a couple of days of roaming. This was a favorite waypoint in its journeys, as the food was always fresh here. Other cats seemed to generally shy away from it, so upon arrival, it had the smorgasbord all to itself.

This night was different though. The first thought it had when it saw the girl with the long, platinum blonde hair run past was to ignore it and maintain the routine. But it detected something. The cat had not sensed this in a human in a long time, and it made it curious. Ignoring the old wives tale, it began to follow.

It had stopped some time later and observed the girl as she became ill. In order to get a closer look, it had jumped up on a box for a better vantage point. Unfortunately, the box was unstable, sending the cat down to the ground and creating quite the ruckus. This startled the girl, and she began running away in a panic. It followed.

After running at full speed, the girl rounded a corner and had bumped into someone. As the cat followed, it stopped at a safe distance to assess the situation. It did not look good for the girl.

XXX

The man is swimming in a haze of alcohol and other drugs. None of that really registered in his addled mind. To him, he is safely in his room, he just could not find his bed! Then, suddenly, something or someone bumped into him. He whirled around at the perpetrator to find a young girl laying on the carpet below.

_Must be my lucky day!_ He leers at the girl, and through no small amount of outside influence, it looks as though she is smiling back at him. That is, when her face is clearly in focus. She definitely wanted him, that much is certain. He reached down and helped her up. As he did so, part of her blouse fell from her shoulder, exposing her breast. She must have meant it. The subtle stirrings inside him and the look in her eye told him that this is indeed going to be a good night.

"Come here, babe," he says sweetly as he leans in for a kiss.

XXX

The cat watchs as the man roughly snatches the girl up from the ground. She lets out a small yelp but offers no resistance at all, just staring at her assailant. _She must be in shock_. It can tell that the man was not completely with it either, as the drool stains on his shirt told the whole story. The man reaches in and rips the girl's blouse, then starts to pull her to him, mumbling something incomprehensible.

It normally did not interfere in the affairs of humans. The cat could care less even under the most extreme circumstances. But there is something about this girl that is different. Almost as if something magical had happened quite recently, and it is drawn to her for some reason. The cat sighs. It is time to do something about this.

XXX

Chi cannot move. She wants to, her mind is screaming to get away. Something terrible is about to happen, however she's completely lost control over her body. As the man tore at her blouse, he muttered something under his breath that she could not understand. The stench coming from his mouth nearly overwhelms her. He then puckers his lips and starts to lean in. All she can do is close her eyes and wait for the inevitable.

The darkness behind her eyelids suddenly explodes in light, and she reflexively scrunches them together to block it out even further. She then feels herself stumble backwards as the grip the man has on her disappears. The brightness subsided, and she opens her eyes. Lying prone on the ground before her is the man, completely out cold.

A minor miracle has occurred, but she is too shocked for it to register. Instead, tears burst from her eyes accompanied by deep sobs that seemed to shake her whole body. Chi kneels down and hugs her legs, burying her face between her knees. More and more, this wish has turned from what she thought it was going to be into a nightmare. She quietly wishes to herself that it would all go back to the way it was.

"Meow."

Chi looks up and sees a black cat with a curious star shaped marking on its head rubbing against her leg. It meows again, plainly wanting some attention. She smiles and reaches down, stroking the cat along the length of its back. It begins to purr loudly as it raises its tail in the air, clearly enjoying the attention.

The cat rises up on its hindquarters and places its paws on her knee. It looks her in the eye and meows again. It is a curious gesture. What is even more curious is that Chi almost understands it.

She stands up and tries to fix her blouse to cover herself. While she is doing that, the cat continues to rub on her legs, doing figure eights around and between her feet as it meows. After a moment of fiddling, she gets it to stay, and then looks down at the black feline. It returns the gesture with what she thinks are pleading eyes. "You want Chi to follow?"

The black cat meows again and bounds off in the opposite direction from the man. Chi hesitates. The cat stops as it passes to the opposite side of the intersection and looks back expectantly. After another meow that seems like encouragement, the former persocom begins to follow.

She hopes she knows what she is doing.

XXX

The cat is impressed. It was rare that humans were perceptive enough to understand what it was thinking. Very few were open to the experience. It now has a decision to make: where to take the girl. There are two choices. One location is closer, but not necessarily as desirable. The other location, which would be better suited, was quite far away. Glancing back at its charge, the decision is made to get her out of the elements as fast as possible.

XXX

After his friend had finally let him in, Hideki spent the last fifteen minutes explaining to Kei what happened. When he finishes, he buries his head in his arms. He can tell form the skeptical look in his friend's eyes that Kei is not convinced. He racks his brain, trying to think of something he could do to make his friend believe.

"So let me get this straight, Hideki," says Kei after a few moments of silent contemplation. He was the only one that called him that, other than Chi. Everyone else referred to him by his last name. "You stepped out for an errand late at night. On your way back, you saw a brilliant column of light that seemed to come from the dorms. You ran to see what was going on and found that your persocom had been somehow turned into a human." Kei pauses and crosses his arms across his chest as Hideki nods silently. "And then you got kicked out because of the no girl's policy in the dorms. After that, you said some stupid things and the persocom turned girl ran off. You have been searching for her ever since. Does that about cover it?"

Hideki sighs. "Yeah, that's about it. The only additional thing is that my laptops both confirmed that a woman literally appeared out of the ceiling."

Kei leans in to his friend and smiles. "Dude, seriously, what are you on and where can I score some?"

Hideki jumps up, nearly tipping over the table in the process. "Dammit Kei, this isn't a joke!" he yells, a vein in his forehead pulsing as the chair he was in tips over onto the floor. With fire and conviction, he stares down his disbelieving friend. "I know what I felt and I know what I heard. I heard her heart beating, Kei! An honest to goodness heart in the chest of my persocom girlfriend!" He pauses for a second and places his hands on the table. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, searching for calm. "You weren't there. The only way I have to prove this to you is to find her. Will you help me?"

His friend stares back impassively with blue eyes. Not the reaction Hideki was expecting. "Actually, I do believe you," replies Kei. He gets up and disappears into his bedroom for a second before returning with a cell phone. "Excuse me, I need to call someone who can help us."

Hideki can only stare, mouth agape. It was way more than he dared to hoped for. He watches as Kei thumbs his phone and brings it up to his ear. "Hey Mom," he says into the receiver. "Yes, I know what time it is …. no, nothing is wrong with me …. well, you see, I have this friend and …. yes, but, it wasn't his directly, it just affects him …. yeah, it is kind of an emergency, someone is missing because of it." Kei looks up at Hideki and gives him a thumbs up. "That's great, thanks Mom! We will be over in a bit."

Hideki stares at his friend as he heads to his bedroom with a look of shock and confusion. "I don't understand how you can believe my story so easily?"

Kei stops, looks back at the taller man and gives him a knowing smile. "My friend, I am one of only a select few in Nekomi who would."

XXX

On a deserted beach, a woman with bronze skin and hair so white it borders on silver was posing in front of a rather dapper gentleman sitting in a beach chair. She laughs and winks at him, running her fingers under the straps of a leather string bikini that was the same color as her skin, leaving nothing to the imagination and barely covering anything. Those same fingers find their way to her lips. She licks them and traces them down her neck and between her ample cleavage.

The man, middle aged with black hair, sunglasses, and a tuxedo, sweats visibly. She starts to walk toward him, swinging her hips as far to each side as she can, seducing him with each step. As she approaches, he opens his mouth.

"Meow!"

The bronze skinned woman stops and stares at the man, dumbfounded. He opens his mouth again.

"Meoooooow!"

He stands and starts meowing incessantly at her. It becomes so loud that she has to hold her hands over her ears as she retreats from the onslaught.

Finally she reaches over and slams a fist down on an alarm clock, vibrating the table it is on and sending an empty bottle of sake to the floor.

Finding herself in her own bed, her purple eyes seem to flash as the anger wells up in her. That damn cat's timing is absolutely impeccable once again. Not even bothering to look for a robe, she slips out of bed so as not to disturb the man sleeping next to her. She envies him sometimes. The ability to sleep as a train passes through their bedroom was a rare gift. Pulling down her nightshirt so it covers the rest of her she heads out of the room.

The caterwauling subsides as she approaches. Angrily, she throws the door open and stares daggers at the small cat on the front stoop. "Welsper! How many times have I told you not to do this?!"

The cat snorts at her. "And how many times have I told you to install a cat door, Mistress Urd?!"

Before the silver haired woman can respond, the cat calmly turns and walks away. She follows it with her gaze until it comes to one of the most pitiful sights she has ever seen. Standing just off the porch is a small girl with a messy mop of platinum blond hair that hangs all the way to the ground. Urd immediately senses the residual magic that is emanating from her. She also sees the vomit stains on the girl's blouse, as well as the rips and tears that cause the shirt to expose half her chest to the world.

Welsper the cat saunters over to the girl, sits at her feet, and stares back at Urd. "This is why I came, anyway. You can sense it can't you."

"By the Almighty!" gasps Urd as she steps forward and wraps a comforting arm around the forlorn girl. "I don't know what the hell happened to you, but you better come inside so we can get you cleaned up!"

XXX

Sitting in the side card of Kei's old BMW motorcycle, Hideki was quite the sight. His six foot frame barely fits. In order to do so, his knees are against his chest the entire way as they ride along the winding roads. As they drive, he cannot help but look down alleys they pass hoping to catch some glimpse of his missing girlfriend.

He sighs as they started up the hill towards Kei's parent's house. There is nothing he can do other than kick himself for being such an idiot. Yes, this is a mind-blowing change. But he was being superficial in that he was looking only at the exterior. Internally, she is still Chi, and that's what he knows he needs to focus on now, for that as much as anything is what he fell in love with.

A moment later, Kei pulls the motorcycle onto the driveway and shuts it off. Hideki's eyes go wide as he looks around at the grounds. A sign tells him this is the Tariki Hongan temple. He looks over at his companion. "Your parents live here?"

"Yep," replies Kei as he removes his helmet and dismounts. "It's a long story."

Hideki begins the process of extricating himself from the side car, succeeding after a few minutes. He stretches his arms and legs as he looks around, trying to regain feeling in his extremities. "The big building is the temple," says Kei. "This is the residence over here."

Hideki follows, enraptured by the beautiful setting around him. The lawn is well manicured, the path they were walking on was clean and tidy. The buildings, while obviously of a much older type of architecture, were in extremely good condition, making him wonder if this should be considered a historical site. As they approached the building that Kei had indicated was the residence, the door slid open to reveal a petite woman wearing a blue and yellow dress and graying chestnut colored hair that matched his friend's. If he had to guess, she was in her mid forties.

Kei approaches and plants a kiss on the woman's cheek. "Hi mom, how is everyone?"

She flashes him a radiant smile. "Your father, brother, and sister are all still asleep, so please be quiet." She shifts her gaze to Hideki, never loosing the smile. "And you must be ….?

"Hideki Motosuwa," he replies with a bow. "Pleased to meet you."

"Oh! Kei has spoken highly of you in the past. Come, please step inside. We can discuss what is going on in the dining room," says Kei's mother, gesturing for him to enter. Hideki obliges, heading down the hall in the same direction that Kei hasgone after removing his shoes. After entering, he kneels down in front of the dining room table that sits at the center of the room. The brown haired woman soon follows, closing the door behind her. She kneels down directly opposite him.

Kei, who is sitting to Hideki's right, clears his throat, then looks at his mother. "Hideki kind of knows what's going on, so you can drop the illusion, mom."

"I see," she replies. She closes her eyes and begins to chant something that Hideki cannot quite make out. He is startled as her body begins to glow, and shields his eyes until the brightness subsides. When he looks at her again, he is astounded by what he sees. Instead of being a graying middle aged mother of three, Kei's mother is now a vibrant young lady, barely in her twenties. She smiles at Hideki, as he cannot seem to close his mouth while he stares at her as the glow subsides. When she kneels back down, his eyes never leave her.

The woman clears her throat. "I believe that an introduction is in order," she says with a smile. "I am Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Second Category, Unlimited. I understand that something magical has happened to your friend and you need my assistance in finding her?"


	3. What Did You Do?

-03-

In downtown Tokyo, high atop one of the many buildings in the city center, two forms lounge contently. The larger of the two, a tall male with unruly black hair and narrow, cyberpunk sunglasses, runs his fingers through the hair of his smaller companion. His name is Zima. Many refer to him as the King of all Persocoms. The title could not be farther from the truth. As was his nature, it has become a never ending amusement to him. One of his favorite past times lately was to refer to his companion as the "Queen". For some reason, that never ended very well for him, but he persisted anyway.

Absentmindedly, he adjusts his glasses as he simultaneously surfs the internet while serving data. He is believed to be one of the most powerful persocoms ever built, having been built expressly for the task of hosting Japan's national data bank, a vast repository used by the government to store nearly everything it knows. Only two others ever exceeded him in data storage and sheer processing power, but their purpose was much different from his own. His creator built them to serve as children to him and his wife, who could not have children of her own.

He always keeps tabs on the pair. In effect, they were his sisters, after all. He marked the passing of one of them many years ago. If he were capable then, he would have felt sad. At the time, Zima had not evolved enough to be able to understand that emotion. Even now, he wonders if he is capable of expressing it properly.

Feeling nostalgic, he performs a search for the remaining sister. The last time he checked on her, she was in Nekomi while her 'one just for her' attended the local technical college. It was pretty much a no-brainer that she should still be in the same general location. So when he cannot pick up her signal there, he becomes mildly annoyed.

He shifts, causing the smaller, female form that is curled up against him to stir. "You are going to have to move, Dita, love."

With a sigh, the petite persocom slides off of him as he stands and adjusts the belt wrapped over the black cloak he is wearing. "What is it?" she asks as she runs her hand through her short, brown hair.

"An anomaly," replies the taller persocom as he steps over to the rail that wraps around the roof. Grasping the edge, he peers over, into the distance.

Dita appears next to him and looks up. "Hacker?"

Zima smirks and looks down at his smaller companion, noting that she has removed her own pair of sunglasses and is staring at him with a look of concern. "No dear, nothing like that," he replies, then stares off into the distance again. "I seem to have lost track of that girl, which I find quite perplexing."

"Her again?" yells the female persocom as she throws her hands in the air. She turns from him and starts walking away with her shoulders scrunched up in annoyance.

The taller man focuses his attention back to his smaller companion, bemused by her reaction. "Why Dita, if I did not know better, I would say you are jealous."

"Well, you do know better," retorts the girl in a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. "We are persocoms, after all."

"Hmmm, indeed."

Dita looks over her shoulder at him with a glare. "Maybe she is dead."

"You can only hope, eh?" replies Zima with a smirk, stating what the smaller persocom had no doubt left unsaid. He turns back to the city and stares off into the distance again. "I don't think so. This is something different. I would have detected the change in status if that were to happen. No, something else has happened." He glances back to Dita and smiles. "We need to go to Nekomi and have a look." That said, he grabs hold of the rail and vaults over it. Briefly, he freefalls, guiding himself over to the rooftop of the building next to the one he was on. Upon landing, he glances up and smiles as he sees Dita come over the rail to follow.

XXX

Urd feels the girl lean in to her as she starts to lead her into the house. It was a small, two bedroom abode, just big enough for her and her family. As they make their way through the living room, the silver haired woman notices the small girl pause. She looks down just in time to see brown eyes roll into the back of their sockets, and the girl start to slump to the floor, unconscious.

"A little help here," demands Urd reflexively.

"Um, I'm a cat, remember?" chides Welsper.

Biting her lip in frustration, Urd cradles the platinum blonde's head in her hand as she guides her to the floor. Safely down, she wipes a few smudges from the girl's cheeks. "She must have been through something terrible."

"I stopped a man from raping her, if that's what you are referring to," replies the cat as she jumps up on one of the chairs and makes himself comfortable.

"I don't think that's all," replies the silver haired goddess as she rubs her chin, contemplating what to do next. "That magic has Peorth's stink all over it." Urd decides she needs to know more about what is going on before she can help any further. If it weren't for the residual power she detected, this would probably be chocked up to a domestic incident, something nice and tidy where she can call the police and hand the girl off. Urd pushes back a platinum loch that has fallen over the girl's eye. "Sorry honey, I need to look in to your memories to see what's going on." She leans in and touches her forehead to the girl's and chants a spell.

"_I am the Goddess Urd. I call upon the memory of this girl to show what these eyes have seen." _

A flash in her mind's eye indicates that she has successfully connected to the girl's memories. The first thing she sees is an alleyway and a small black cat running before her. "Rewind," says the goddess, and the scene shifts to a point of view of large man roughly grabbing onto the girl's shoulder and dragging her up off the ground. Urd sighs internally, understanding just how close to a tragedy this had actually become. She begins to detect wisps of the girl's emotional state. Something has driven this flight.

"Rewind", repeats the goddess, causing the scene to shift again to more running. This way and that way around corners, until finally, she detects the girl's emotions overcome her, causing her to be physically ill. The scene nearly breaks Urd's heart. She starts to feel the full brunt of her charge's emotional state. _But what caused it?_

"Rewind," says the goddess a third time. The scene shifts to a stationary view in a more open forum. The emotions she detected earlier are gone, replaced with something more akin to confusion. Urd watches as the girl looks up at someone who is sitting next to her. A tall man with brown, un-kept hair. He is staring into the distance, as if he were in shock. Something had obviously just happened to them.

As the silver haired goddess watches the playback from the girls point of view, Urd sees her try to embrace the man.

"_Hideki, what's wrong?" says the platinum haired girl._

_At first, the man, Hideki, does not respond. Then suddenly, his head snaps down to peer at the girl. A look of confusion and shock overtakes his features, and he roughly pushes her away._

"_Who are you and what have you done with Chi?!" he screams as her._

As the scene plays out, Urd feels the flood of raw emotions from the girl overtake her, and it's all she can do to maintain the connection. She can feel the shock and betrayal permeate every part of the girl's being. She obviously has strong feelings for him, and the rejection sets her off. The goddess feels something different as well. Unlike most mortals of this girl's apparent age, she detects a lack of control. A feeling of betrayal can manifest in many ways, one of which is anger. She observes the girl's reaction with interest as the rage builds up. Whether it's for the man's reaction or the fact that she is so angry, Urd cannot decide.

The goddess continues to watch as the girl snaps and strikes out at the man, slapping him across the face. Almost instantly, remorse and confusion replaced the rage. The man stares back at her. Urd can now see that there is an understanding of what he did on his face. Yet he does nothing. He just sits there stupidly while confusing and conflicting emotions swirl in the girl's head. She sighs as the girl turns and flees.

Wanting to see what happened prior, Urd rewinds again, and is treated to a scene where an old friend is dressing down the couple. _Tamyia does not look half bad for an old man._ She watches the couple get carried down the stairs and unceremoniously dropped outside. "Rewind," she says again. At first she sees blackness, then she opens her eyes. The goddess sees that the man from before is holding her. She can almost feel the girl shift in the man's arms and whisper in his ear.

"_Chi's wish came true."_

Alarm bells go off in Urd's head. That was the explanation for the residual magic she detected. Somehow, this girl was granted a wish. She recalls hearing Belldandy talk about the unintended consequences of some of the wishes she had granted in the past. Not being a wish granter herself, she had never seen it up close like this before. Curious as to what the wish was, Urd rewinds again. At first she sees blackness, then the girl opens her eyes. The goddess sees that the man from before is holding her. She can almost feel the girl shift in the man's arms and whisper in his ear.

"_Chi's wish came true."_

"What the hell?" exclaims Urd. She tries again and is treated with the exact same scene again. Confused, she breaks the connection and sits up.

Welsper glances at her with a mildly disinterested look. "What's wrong?"

"Her memories only go back a couple of hours. There is nothing before that!"

The cat's ears turn to the side in annoyance. "That can't be right, she's at least eighteen, nineteen at the most."

"Let me double check." The bronze goddess chants the spell again and touches her forehead to the girl's. After a few moments, she raises her head and looks at the cat with a look of desperation on her face. "Nothing!"

The girl stirs, causing the cat and the deity to redirect their attention to her. Chocolate brown eyes open and look up at the goddess. She turns over and lifts herself up to a sitting position on her knees. Her attention shifts back and forth between the other two. "Chi?"

Urd blinks at hearing the non-sequitor. _What is a chi?_ She reaches out and pulls up the torn part of the girl's blouse, using a quick shot of magic to fasten it in place so that she is no longer exposing herself. "What is your name, honey?"

"Chi?" replies the blonde as she tilts her head to the side, giving Urd a look of confusion.

"Is that your name, Chi?" asks the silver haired goddess.

"I think I recall her referring to herself as that when I got her to follow me here," adds in the cat as she shifts in the seat to get into a more comfortable position.

The girl furrows her brows and looks at the black feline. "Chi?" She jumps up and rushes to the chair and snatches up Welsper into a big hug. "Chiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"Ack! Goddess! Help!"

Stifling a laugh, Urd does nothing as the girl squeezes and cat, causing her eyes to bug out a little. As the assault continues, the bronze goddess realizes something. The blonde waif has said nothing but 'chi' since she woke up. Even now, she repeats it over and over.

Wrapping an arm around her charge's shoulders, Urd guides her over to the couch and motions for her to sit down. Sufficiently distracted, Welsper makes her escape, causing the girl to pout slightly. Urd sits down on a coffee table in front of the couch and looks the girl in the eye. "Can you say anything other than 'chi'?"

"Chi!" says the girl as she nods in the affirmative.

Urd watches her expectedly, waiting for something else to come out of her mouth. The girl gazes back with a blank expression. "Chi?" she says finally.

"What did you do to her?" asks the cat incredulously.

Urd's attention immediately snaps to the cat, who was tentatively peeking out of a hiding space she had found under the chair. "Why do you automatically assume I did anything?" she retorts with as much anger as she can muster. It was hollow, though, as she was truly worried as well.

XXX

A little slow on the uptake, Hideki can only stare at the woman in front of him. _Kei's mom is a goddess?_ As he rolls this around in his mind, Belldandy simply stares back, smiling expectedly at him. _Why is she looking at me like this? Does she expect me to bow? What about praying? Will she not help me if I don't?! _After a few more moments of inner discussion on what he should do, he finally pushes away from the table. Still on his knees, he brings his entire upper body down to the floor in a deep bow, touching his forehead to the ground and folding his hands on top of each other in front. He then raises back up. "Oh wise and powerful goddess…." he says as he repeats the gesture.

"Oh my," says the goddess, clearly embarrassed.

"Dude! You don't have to bow to her!" yells Kei.

Hideki stops mid bow, and looks at the duo in confusion. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" he exclaims, worried he may have offended her in some way. He then sits up and closes his eyes while clasping his hands together under his chin. "I pray to the goddess….." He is interrupted by an audible smack. Opening one eye, he sees his friend has slapped his hand to his forehead in frustration.

The blue eyed goddess gives him warm smile. "I'm sorry, Mr. Motosuwa, I am not that kind of goddess."

Hideki stares back with a confused look while his friend snickers beside him. His eyes dart back and forth between the deity and her son, still not comprehending what is going on. "So, what kind of a goddess are you?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, it would be very difficult to explain quickly," says Belldandy. "I would prefer to focus on finding your friend. You can seek your answer afterwards." She shifts her focus to Kei. "Son, would you go get me the city map?"

Kei nods, gets up, and steps out of the room. Belldandy reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a golden chain. On the end of it is a clear crystal. Inside, he sees smaller, cube shaped blue crystals that seem to be suspended in some type of liquid. Hideki blinks and stares, mesmerized by a feint glow that emanates from it.

His attention in broken when Kei returns and spreads a map out over the table. "Now, let us see what we can see," says the goddess. She dangles the crystal over the map and closes her eyes.

_Lost in a maze, the Almighty's servant wonders. I pray to the spirits to divine the location of whom we seek such that we can offer them safety and peace. _

All at once, the smaller crystals begin to glow more brightly as the larger starts to circle around. Faster and faster it twirls, increasing its arc with each pass. After a few moments, it stops over a section of the map and emits a blue beam, marking a location. The trio leans closer to get a look at it.

"Oh!" says Belldandy.

"Well, that makes things easy," deadpans Kei, rolling his eyes and earning a chastising look from his mother.

"How is it easy?" inquires Hideki, not sure what they are talking about.

Belldandy flashes a smile at him. "It would seem that your friend has found her way to my sister's house."

XXX

The goddess Peorth strolls into the break room of the Earth Assistance Agency as if she owns the place. The room looks like most others in any large company. There are several non-descript refrigerators lining the wall next to a counter. Several single cup drink dispensing machines sit unused on one side of a two basin sink, microwaves on the other. The biggest difference: the tables and chairs that sit around the floor all float about the ground.

Not only had the rose goddess granted what was in her opinion the wish of the century, she had stopped by Tamiya's for a nightcap. Several years after the big man saved her and Keiichi from being crushed by a falling motorcycle, she met him again when she tried to crash Keiichi's bachelor party. It was there that she finally realized how the big man felt about her, so she started a mutually beneficial relationship with him. It will never reach the level that the Norns were able to achieve with their chosen ones, but she did find him a good enough distraction from her routine. Beneath that gruff exterior is actually a very sweet man.

"Its been a good day for moi!" she announces before she realizes that the room is empty. Looking around, she shrugs to herself and sits down at one of the tables in the middle of the room. Someone was sure to be by any minute, and there is plenty of time before she has to man the phone again. As she waits, she conjures up a file and begins to work on her fingernails.

Twenty minutes later, her patience is rewarded as the Goddess Othila strolls in. The brunette is wearing her customary yellow dress and red overcoat with its pointed collar that Peorth always thought made her look like one some sort of witch from a mortal's fairytale. Close behind her, as always, is Jera. The diminutive goddess was always riding Othila's coat tails. Peorth watches as she flicks her short, blue green hair absentmindedly before she realizes who else is in the room, then tugs on the taller goddess' dress to get her attention. When Othila sees the rose goddess, she grins and redirects herself in her direction.

As she approaches, Peorth returns the fake smile with one of her own.

"You would not believe the wish I almost granted today!" exclaims the blonde goddess, clearly exasperated.

"Oh, do tell," replies Peorth, barely hiding the sarcasm in her voice. Othila misses it, as usual, but it does earn a nasty look from Jera.

Othila pulls out a chair across from the black haired goddess and dramatically flops down in it. "This _woman_ wanted me to spend the night with her, can you image that?!"

"Oh, the horror!" exclaims Jera as she sits between them. "What did you do!"

"Well, I refused of course," Othila replies with a smug grin. "I cannot have a lowly human sullying my reputation!"

Peorth rubs her temple and smiles in amusement as Jera chimes in again. "You are so right! That is beneath you. What was that woman thinking!"

"Another fine example of your stellar customer service skills!" teases Peorth, this time not bothering to hide the sarcasm. The tall goddess was almost always complaining about the wishes she had to grant. The rose goddess assumed that Yggdrasil assigned the easy ones to her because she just did not seem to get the idea that the customer is always right.

"Oh shut up," yells Othila as she glares at Peorth.

"Yeah, shut up!" parrots Jera.

The brunette goddess leans in towards the rose goddess with an evil grin. "What did your assignment wish for, some sort of deviant sexual device?" she sneers, exhorting a snicker from her sidekick.

Now it is Peorth's turn to be smug. "No, much better," she says as she slightly bobs her head and shoulders from side to side to side to add emphasis. "I believe the wish from my assignment rivals that of the Morisato wish." She smirks at Othila's skeptical look and Jera's aura of confusion. "I was called out by a persocom."

"Pfft, yeah right, whatever," says Othila derisively, waving her hand as if she were trying to keep someone's cigarette smoke from offending her. "Those things can't call the help line."

"No, really, somehow this one was recognized by Yggdrasil as having a soul," replies Peorth. "I scanned her myself and confirmed it."

Othila can only look back in shock. Jera glares at her for a moment. "Liar!" is all she ends up saying.

The rose goddess smiles at the doubting Thomases. "Look it up if you don't believe me." Seeing no retort coming from either of them, she continues. "And do you know what she wished? She wished to be human!"

"Oh, now I know you are full of it, Peorth", says the brunette goddess as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes. She pauses, trying to figure some way for it to not be true. "Even if one did wish for something like that, you would not know how to fulfill it," she says finally.

"Au contraire, mon ami!" exclaims the rose goddess, sensing victory. "And I shall prove it…"

She is interrupted by the arrival of another goddess. Idis, with her long blonde hair set in a French braided pony tail that flows down the entire length of her back, adjusts the purple tunic that covers her white blouse as she approaches the trio. "Peorth, Urd called for you regarding the wish to make that persocom with a soul human. She's on line one thirty-two."

"Merci!" replies the black haired goddess as she jumps up. _It's almost as if I planned it! _Her eyes wander back to the duo that she was talking to and notes the looks of absolute surprise and defeat on their faces. "Ladies, I need to take this call, adieu!"

As she watches Peorth leave, Idis's blue eyes meet Othila's green. "Please come to my office in five minutes. You and I need to speak alone regarding your last assignment and your _failure_ to grant the heart's desire of your assignment." That said, she twirls around and strolls out of the room.

Othila and Jera both gulp nervously as they watch the shift supervisor leave.

XXX

Peorth manifests through a camera strategically placed on a table into the living room. Looking around, she immediately sees the former persocom turned girl sitting in a chair stroking Welsper, a blank expression on her face. As she lightly touches down on the floor, she notices Urd sitting on the couch talking into her cell phone. The silver haired goddess waves a hand in acknowledgement and then continues her conversation.

"Her name is Chi? That's not surprising. … Well, it seems she has amnesia or something and that's all she can say now. …. Yes as a matter of fa…. Why do you automatically assume I did anything? ….. Hold on, Peorth is here." Urd sighs, covers the receiver and looks up at the rose goddess. "Can you have a look at her? Something is going on."

Nodding, the black haired goddess turns and strolls over to the girl. Kneeling down next to the chair, she first addresses the cat sitting happily in the platinum blonde's lap.

"Welsper," she greets with as much derision as she can muster. There is no love lost between the two since he had turned back time and turned her into a child, requiring the Daimakaicho to intervene and assist in returning her back to normal.

"Cut-throat bitch," hisses Welsper as he jumps up and runs away.

Shaking her head, Peorth recalls that the blonde's name is Chi Motosuwa. She can tell there is something amiss. The girl's expression is mostly lifeless, not in the sense that no one is home, more like a blank slate that is waiting to be written on. The goddess reaches up and pushes back a stray loch of platinum colored hair. "So, how did you reach this state?"

"Chi?" is the only response she gets.

Feeling a presence behind her, Peorth turns to see Urd leaning over her shoulder. "Is that all she can say?"

"She's been like this since she woke up," replies the silver haired goddess.

"What did you do?"

Urd glares at the rose goddess, who has obviously touched a nerve. Her face turning several shades of red, the silver haired goddess' anger is evident. "All I did was run the basic memory recall spell!" she replies through clenched teeth.

Peorth turns back to Chi. The emptiness in the girl's expression is still there. She reaches up and swipes at the lock of hair she had worked on before. "This is why a second class should not use spells like that."

Urd throws her hands up in the air and stalks off to a chair on the other side of the room. "I did the spell correctly," she insists as she flops down on the cushion.

"We shall see," replies Peorth as she turns and faces Chi. The goddess raises her arms, holds her hands on either side of the girl's head, and begins to chant.

"_This soul, locked away where no one can see. The door is shut. I ask the Almighty to provide the key so that his servant may unlock that which is everlasting and show it the light of the universe."_

XXX

Peorth opens her eyes and finds herself just inside the entrance to a cave. Smiling to herself, she immediately realizes that she was successful. While there were plenty of spells that could be used to get glimpses of a mortals innermost thoughts and desires, including the one Urd used for playing back memories, there are very few that can actually penetrate into the root of the soul. In fact, including herself, The Almighty, and Belldandy, she can count the number of gods and goddess capable of completing this particular spell successfully on two hands.

Looking around, she found it all rather pedestrian when compared to the other instances she had done this. The scenery of a mortal's soul was always based on a manifestation of that person's inner most thoughts, desires, and experience. People who spend a majority of their lives in the outdoors often had scenes of beautiful valleys and vista's, while someone who spent a lot of time inside would have incredibly elaborate houses with hundreds of rooms to explore.

Her favorites were the ones with repressed desires. She recalled a wish she granted for an extremely shy maid from California in the USA.

_After interrogating her for what seemed like an hour, Peorth was getting nowhere fast. So, to expedite things, she requested and was granted access to the wisher's soul. When she entered, she found a jumble of things, from whitewater rafting to dancing to laying out on a yacht. The theme was consistent it seemed, she wanted to be rich. But as the black haired goddess peered in closer, she noted that there was always someone with her during the activities. It was then she realized that the woman was not necessarily wishing for those things, but to experience them with that someone. Unfortunately, she could not make out who it was as his face was always obscured._

_ Further investigation and exploration revealed a room in the middle of it all. When the rose goddess opened the door, she found the interior was draped with red satin everywhere. In the middle was a heart shaped bed, and on top was a man. Upon seeing him, Peorth instantly understood. He had a physique that would make Atlas jealous and his deep, Germanic accent commanded respect when he spoke. If it weren't for her job, the goddess may have been tempted to seek out the man herself. _

_ She quickly squashed those desires and exited. But the woman was too worried about the repercussions if she wished for the man to fall in love with her and leave his current wife. So she settled for some time with him and a child to always remember their time together. Not exactly what Peorth would have wished for, but mortals were funny like that; too wrapped up in the worries and affairs of others._

Peorth is startled out of her memory by the sound of someone laughing. Curious, she walks out of the cave and is greeted by a beautiful view of a small valley. She can see tall grass everywhere she looks that waves in the gentle breezes that were wafting in from the outside. All around the valley, sheer cliffs rise hundreds of feet in the air, enclosing the area and preventing any escape if one were so inclined. In the middle of the valley was a small grey building without windows. It is there that she spies a small girl in a blue dress, gallivanting around and swinging what appears to be a butterfly net.

The rose goddess frowns a bit as she starts towards the center. She understood that such a young soul was probably not going to have much in the way of wants and desires. However, based on what she knew about the girl before the wish, Peorth was expecting more.

As she approaches, the little girl stops and stares. After a few moments, recognition appears on her face and she runs up to goddess with a huge smile on her face. The girl is no more than ten years old, with platinum blond hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a milky white complexion. Peorth immediately recognizes that she could Chi's internal avatar.

"You are a goddess!" exclaims the little girl as she comes to a halt in from of her. Peorth leans down and gives her a warm smile.

"Yes, I am," replies the rose goddess. "And who might you be?"

"My name is Chi!" exclaims the little blond girl as she bounces up and down and twirls.

Peorth straightens up and purses her lips in worry. In general, someone's avatar should be close to the same age as their mortal self. The only hard exception is when a mortal could not mentally mature past a certain point due to some deficit. What human doctors did not understand yet was that a person's mental age was tied to that of the inner self that resides in the soul. Sometimes it's the mental make-up that is the culprit. Then there are times that there are problems within the soul that causes it. She remembers sensing no such issues with the girl after she cast the spell that converted her from a persocom to a human, so what she was seeing indicated there is something that has gone seriously wrong since.

Looking around, she sees no obvious clues as to what might be causing the issue, although she could swear that the cliff walls were a little closer now than they were a minute ago. She is broken out of her thoughts by someone tugging on her arm. Peorth looks down to see the girl looking pensively at the building in the center. "Are you going to go in there?" asks the younger version of Chi almost in a whisper, not moving her eyes from the grey structure.

Squatting down in front of the now frightened child, Peorth gets her attention and gives her a warm smile to reassure her. "If I must, why do you ask?"

Chi leans in and cups a hand to her mouth as if shielding her words from something. "There is a scary lady in there," she whispers quietly.

Immediately feeling apprehensive, the goddess glances over to the building, then back to the child. She's never heard of anything in the soul being potentially dangerous to the avatar. In fact, none of this was right. She starts to recap: There should be more, much more to the scenery around her. The avatar should be older, at least close to the same age as the girl herself. _And dammit! Why does it look like those walls are closer still!_ She lets out a sigh in frustration and focuses on the building. The answers are probably inside.

As she stands and turns, the goddess feels something pull on her arm. She looks down to see Chi clinging to her desperately. The girl says nothing, but the worried look on her face speaks volumes. "Not to worry, petite fille," says Peorth in an attempt to reassure her. "I am a goddess! Therefore, nothing can harm me!"

As she starts walking towards the building, Peorth notes that the girl was less than impressed. "Can't be helped from a non-believer," she muses to herself as she arrives. The structure appears to be made of concrete. On the side she is on, there is no entrance. She circles around to the other side and finally finds it, a coal black metal door that looks like it would fit in the middle ages. Stepping up to it, she places an ear to the cold metal surface and listens. All she can hear is a light humming sound emanating from within.

She takes the handle and pulls hard. After a moment of struggle, it finally opens, revealing a brightly lit room. Upon entering, the goddess immediately starts to shiver, as the temperature has dropped considerably. Inside, there are row after row of what appear to be metal cabinets. Each one is filled to the top with all manner of electronic gadgets. Small, multi-colored lights abound on each one.

As the rose goddess starts to walk down one of the roes, she cannot help but think of the youngest Norn and how she would love it in here. She stops and looks down when she realizes she is walking on something other than the floor. Strewn about the area are all manner of cables, none of which are attached to anything. It was as if they have been recently removed and discarded in a rush.

"Who are you?"

Peorth feezes when she hears the voice. It sounds vaguely familiar, but has a slightly lower pitch and a much more menacing tone. Glancing around, she sees nothing. "I am the Goddess Peorth, show yourself!"

The black haired goddess' attention is immediately drawn above her as something, no, _someone_ begins to descend from above. Peorth immediately recognizes the person to be female, with the same face and long platinum blonde hair as Chi. For a moment, the goddess thinks that this may be the true avatar. It was the right age. However this thought is fleeting as she notices that still attached to the side of the newcomer's head are the white and pink port covers that the girl no longer needs since the wish. This person is wearing a black dress that goes down to her knees. Accompanying this are black knee high stiletto style boots and matching gloves that cover her arms up to her elbows. She is being held up by the same cabling that the goddess was walking on earlier. Slowly, it lowers the girl to the floor.

The black clad girl narrows her eyes at the goddess. "Are you the one that tried to hack into Chi's memories before?"

"No, I'm not," replies the goddess. Although not very computer literate, Peorth immediately surmises that she is talking about Urd's attempts to play back the former persocom's memories earlier. She is not sure, but she thinks she is beginning to understand the symbolism. The computer room she is in is a representation of Chi's memories, made real by her legacy as a machine. When the silver haired goddess played back those memories, this, whatever it was, quite literally pulled the plug. Peorth looks at the black clad persocom and realizes that it may look like Chi, it most certainly was not. The biggest tell was in the eyes. The little persocom she turned into a human had such beautiful, trusting eyes. This one has eyes that burn with hurt and anger. "Who are you?"

Seemingly from nowhere, computer cables reach up, grab, and entangle the arms of the goddess. "I ask the questions," replies the persocom coldly. "If you are not the one that tried to hack into the system, then you are the one that changed the system."

While she knew that these things were devoid of emotion, one could not help but hear the menace in her voice. Peorth narrows her eyes at the blonde persocom. "It's not wise to anger a goddess."

"You have no power here."

"We shall see," replies the goddess. Peorth jerks her hands inward with all her might, causing the tangle of cables on her arms to break. She then twirls her arms around her and then gestures to her adversary. "ROSE STORM ATTACK!"

All at once, a howling wind picks up and rushes down the row, carrying with it thousands upon thousands of thorny roses towards the black clad persocom. Much to Peorth's chagrin, the attack does not seem to faze it. As the wind dies, the girl nonchalantly brushes some petals off her shoulder, then looks at the goddess with murder in her eyes. "This is all your fault!" she yells. As she takes a menacing step forward, all of the cabling that lay haphazardly across the floor suddenly comes alive. It begins entangling and whipping at Peorth as she begins to struggle against it.

The stranger steps up to the goddess as she is lifted off the ground. Peorth's arms and legs are hopelessly bound as the cables wrap around her like small snakes. "You did this," says the persocom. "My purpose is to protect Chi, when I tried to do so after you changed her, this is the result!" Understanding dawns on the rose goddess. This entity, whatever it is, was present before the wish. When Urd replayed the memories, it reacted as if an attack were happening, and immediately disconnected Chi's memories and personality from the soul. The result was the shell of a girl she found when she arrived at Urd's apartment.

As she finishes with her revelation, Peorth sees Chi's avatar from the outside step in and stand next to the black clad persocom. However, the goddess immediately sees something different. Instead of being ten years old, the child had regressed in age, now appearing to be about six. She looks up at Peorth with sadness in her eyes.

"Now you must go," commands the persocom. Before she can protest, Peorth is carried by the cables and bodily thrown out of the building, the door slamming shut behind.

Sitting up in the grass, the goddess looks around and sees that the cliff walls are closer than they ever were. Understanding and dread permeates her being as she realizes what has happened. Having been unnaturally disconnected from the nourishment of the body, the soul was beginning to shrink. If nothing was done, it would be completely lost and that which is Chi would be gone.

As she stands and prepares to chant the counterspell that would return her to the real world, only one person comes to mind that could possibly make heads or tails of the computer world that resides inside that building:

Skuld.

XXX

As the sun starts to filter in to the guest room of the Tariki Hongan temple, Hideki curses silently. He has not slept a wink. After Belldandy had spoken to her sister and it was revealed that Chi had indeed somehow found her way there, they decided it would be best if he got some sleep. It was the absolute last thing on his mind at the time. He wanted to rush over and see Chi, to apologize and tell her how stupid he was for saying those awful things. But the goddess assured him that she was in good hands, and that it would be best to wait until morning.

Suddenly, a shrill whistle sounds off in the room. Sumomo then appears in front of him. "Its 6:30! Time for the wakey-wakey exercises!" yells the pink and white laptop.

"Sorry, Sumomo, no wakey-wakey exercises today," replies Hideki, groggily. He then turns over and continues to contemplate his problem, totally missing the dejected look of the small persocom. He knows that he needs to say something. What he is unable to think of is exactly what it should be. Once again, he is broken out of his thoughts and worries, this time by the red and white laptop, Kotoko, landing on his chest with a thud.

"Hello! Telephone, I'm ringing! Ring! Ring!" she screetches at him, hitting his nose as if it is a punching bag. "Are you going to pick me up? Ring, Ring!"

Hideki sighs. While he uses Sumomo's cell phone capabilities for general purposes, only his closest friends have Kotoko's number. He is not sure he can face them right now. As the little persocom continues to protest about is lack of action, he finally relents.

"Ok, Kotoko, answer it." Instantly, Kotoko's eyes go blank. White lines cross from side to side as she establishes the connection. "Hello?" he says when he hears the click indicating success. Immediately, he recognizes the frantic and panicky voice of Chitose Hibiya.

"_What has happened to my daughter?!"_

* * *

A/N: And so, now Ms. Hibiya gets in the act, along with everyone's favorite dynamic duo from Chobits! I will admit that this will be more Zima centric, though, as what needs to be done can really only be done by him and Hibiya. Oh, and for your info, Kotoko is reciting, almost word for word, the ringtone on my wife's cell phone. I thought it definitly fit!

And once again, a huge shout out to by Beta, Nena Camadera, who has been keeping me straight on my grammer and the OMG side of the house. I also want to send a special shout out to my new Beta, webidolchiu94, who is keeping me straight on Chobits. The first couple of paragraphs were quite different than they were before she got hold of them. The change is definitly for the better. Anyway, on to CH4, which will probably at least end this arc. I got a little too serious in CH2, so I tried to lighten it up in CH3, and will continue to do so in CH4.


	4. Get to tha Temple!

-04-

In an apartment complex in Tokyo, a frantic woman flits to and fro, gathering up what she needs for a trip and stuffing it into a day bag. Chitose Hibyia, the manager of the building, pauses and takes a deep breath in search of calm. Her usual morning routine consists of preparing a small meal for herself and then immediately starting the day's duties. She had originally started waking up early that she could see off Hideki and Chi while he was going to the Seki cram school. Since they had left for Nekomi Tech, she got up early more out of habit.

Unfortunately, this morning has so far been anything but routine. Chitose knew Chi was in good hands while she was with Hideki. The blonde persocom was originally created to be a daughter to her, so she still felt the need to look in on the couple every now and then from her basement computer lab. It was comforting when the familiar signal would come up on the screen in its usual place in one of the men's dorms at the university. However, on this particular morning, the signal was nowhere to be found.

The implications of such a change in status worried her greatly. The worst case scenarios were swimming through her head when she called Hideki to find out what was going on. Unfortunately, he was less than helpful. _"I'm sorry Ms. Hibiya, its way too hard to explain. The best way is for you to see for yourself."_ That only served to heighten her anxiety. Fortunately, he gave her a place to meet.

A ring on her cell phone startles her back to the present. "Hello?" she says in the receiver after opening and bringing it to her ear.

"_This is Chin from the driving service, I am outside waiting."_

"Yes, thank you Mister Chin," replies Ms. Hibiya. "I will be out shortly." Closing her phone, she sticks it into the pocket of her skirt, then straightens out a wrinkle on her tan turtleneck. Glancing in a mirror as she grabs her day bag, she sighs. Her hair is still damp because she didn't enough time to dry it. There is nothing she can do about it now, so she walks out the door apartment, locking it behind as she goes. Upon leaving the building, she can see the car at the end of the path and hurries to it, opening the rear passenger door and tossing her bag inside without bothering to wait for the driver to get out and do it for her.

"I need to go to the Tariki Hongan temple in Nekomi with all do haste," says Chitose as she slides into the seat. Only then does she chance a glimpse at the driver. She draws in a surprised gasp as recognizes who it is. "Zima!"

Looking at her through the rearview mirror, the tall persocom adjusts his glasses down so that she can see his eyes over the rim and smiles. "Hello Ms Hibiya, it's been a while."

Panic rises up inside of her, and she forces it down. The last time she had seen him was when Hideki professed his love for her daughter on the roof of the apartment building. She knew that he and his companion had been sent to stop Chi's program from activating. However, instead of physically intervening when it seemed like it might happen, Zima stood back and watched. She could only guess that he knew the parameters that would cause the program to finally execute, and had recognized that Hideki's love would prevent it from happening. Still, she had no reason to trust him, even though he had been created by her husband before her daughters. He had been sent at the behest of the government to harm her daughter, so she had no reason to trust him.

"W-w-w-where is Mr. Chin?" she stammers out as she tries to think of a way out of this.

A woman with black hair suddenly pops up from the front passenger seat and smiles at her. "We gave him a break," replies Dita menacingly.

A sense of dread permeates her soul, but before Chitose can respond, Zima speaks up. "Now Dita, my queen, we should not frighten our dear step-mother." His admonishment of the smaller persocom elicits a backhand across his face. Dita childishly turns around in the seat in a huff and crosses her arms across her chest. Zima can only smile at her. "I love you too, dearest."

Readjusting his glasses, Zima turns in the seat to face his passenger. "What do you want?" demands Chitose. "Has the government sent you to gloat about whats happened to Chi?"

"On the contrary, Ms. Hibiya, I am here purely out of my own curiosity," replies the tall persocom. "I admit that in the past, I was duty bound to harm your precious daughter. Trust me, it was with never ending satisfaction on my part that I defied those who passed down that edict when I allowed the process to complete."

Zima removes his glasses and looks at her with his dark eyes. "Of course, the irony is that by allowing the process to complete, nothing happened."

Chitose can see no deception, but then again, she of all people knows what kind of programming can be done on a persocom. Dispite her misgivings, she calms down as the truth of what he said sinks in. In truth, if it had not been for the tall persocom, her daughter would probably have been destroyed, leaving her to pick up the pieces of a devestated Hideki Motosuwa. "What do you want?" she asks.

Zima smiles and puts his glasses back on. "I want to help," he says as he turns back to the steeringwheel. "Where to, ma'am," he says as he looks back at her through the rearview mirror.

XXX

Opening his eyes, Hideki finds himself standing in a field of small plants with fluffy white tops. He puzzles over this for a moment, trying to recall what they are called before remembering that they are dandilions. The small weeds are in the final stage of their lives, having produced the cotton like parachutes that will transport the next generation. All that is needed now is some wind to begin the process.

As if on queue, a light gust blows across the field, causing a cloud of white to burst forth from the ground. It begins to swirl around, picking up more of the seeds as it progresses. Hideki stands in place, fixated on the small tornado as it begins to approach him. When it gets near, it begins to dissipate. As if by magic, something begins the coalesce as the small parachutes start to disperse.

As the form takes shape, Hideki begins to recognize some of its features; A familiar frilly dress with long sleeves that is short in the front and long in the back, long platinum blonde hair that reaches just to the ground. Hideki's heart skips a beat as it dawns on him who is now standing in front of him. As the tornado dissipates, Chi steps forward with her arms raised, beckoning him to come to her. At first, he does not approach; still ashamed at how he had acted before. Chi has been changed irrevocably by a magical process that he has no hope of ever understanding, and he said some things that he wishes he could erase from existence.

"It is OK, my love," she says, waving her hands in encouragement. "Chi forgives you."

Relief floods his being, spurring him to step towards his beloved. To his surprise, she floats up to meet him face to face, her chocolate colored eyes peering lovingly into his. Her arms encircle his neck as she leans in close and catches his lips in her own. Light at first, the kiss deepens as Hideki begins to lose himself in the moment. His eyes close and his arms go round her waist as he pulls her in close as their tongues begin to explore each other. This was a sensation that Hideki was not used to, as Chi did not originally have a tongue. This Chi does, and she is being very adventurous with it.

As she presses in closer to him, he realizes that he needs air, and breaks the connection.

Hideki's eyes open to find a small red and white persocom sitting on his face, staring at him with an annoyed look on her face. He feels her remove her hands from either side of his nose. As the fog of sleep slowly lifts from him, he resists the urge to snatch the tiny laptop off for breaking such a pleasant dream. He elects instead to be polite. "Kotoko, what are you doing?"

"Waking you up," replies the small persocom as she shifts to extricate herself from her position on his face.

"Why?" he asks as he turns his head to follow her as she jumps down.

She turns and scowls at him. "Because Lady Belldandy has been calling for you to join them for breakfast."

From outside his room, he hears the now familiar voice of the resident goddess call out. "Nanna! Please hurry, your breakfast is getting cold!"

"I know mom! I need to finish my hair!" comes the reply from the opposite direction.

Hideki furrows his brow in confusion, wondering how long he had been asleep. Ms. Hibiya had called at 6:30 this morning. The only reason he remembers that is because Kotoko sounded her alarm for him to start the wakey-wakey exercises, which he had declined. She called immediately after that on Kotoko's line. He remembered the conversation quite well, just not much after that with the exception of the dream he had just been roused from. "Kotoko, what time is it?"

The red and white persocom turns around in a huff. "The time is now seven forty-two AM," she replies with a little indignation in her voice.

"WAAHH!" cries Hideki as he bolts upright on the futon. "How could I have slept so late?!" He looks down and realizes he is not wearing what he was wearing when he arrived last night. Instead, he has on brown and white striped pajamas that were a size and a half to small for his tall frame. _These must be Kei's._ Looking around frantically, he sees his clothes neatly folded in the corner. He lunges for them and starts to get dressed, nearly tearing the seams out of the too small nightclothes in the process.

As he puts his right foot into his trousers, he starts hopping towards the door, finishing just in time to throw it open and stumble out. As he passes the threshold, he runs straight into someone else and together, they begin to fall. On the way down, Hideki has the presence of mind to twist as he falls so that he does not land on top of whomever he has run it to. His back hits the ground and the unknown person lands on top, causing the wind to get knocked out of him.

As he gasps for breathe, he looks up and instantly recognizes the mop of chestnut brown hair lying on his chest. _OH MY GOD! I RAN OVER THE GODDESS! _Instantly having visions of being struck down by lightning, he does his best to calm himself. "Are you ok?!" he blurts out as her head starts to move. Two hands press against his chest as the one on top lifts them self up.

"Oh my," she says as she leans back and straddles his hips. Hideki swallows as the woman pushes her hair out of her eyes. She looks down at him as he raises himself off the ground onto his elbows, giving him a smile that instantly reminds him of the goddess he met last night. "Well, hello handsome!" she says, giving him a wink with her brown eyes.

Hideki's face flushes four shades of red and the girl lifts herself off of him, then offers a hand to help him up. He takes it, and she surprises him by effortlessly lifting him to his feet and then latching onto his arm. "What's your name?" she asks.

"Um…..Hideki," he stammers as he tries briefly to separate himself from her. It is futile, though, as he finds her grip is like iron.

"You must be one of my older brother's friends," she says as she smiles up at him with a twinkle in her eye.

Before he can say anything else, Kei brushes past them, giving his sister and exasperated look as he goes. "Nanna, let him go, he's already taken."

"Ah, pooh," pouts the girl. She does not release him, though, half dragging Hideki as they follow Kei into the dining room.

When they step through the door, Hideki's eyes bug out when he lays eyes on the spread that has been laid out on the table. A large pot of miso soup dominates the middle. Each place setting has an empty bowl as well as a bowl of rice and a small plate with what looks like dried mackerel. Upon seeing the food and smelling the delicious aroma, Hideki's stomach lets out a loud growl.

Nanna giggles as the noise subsides. "Sounds like you're hungry! Here, you can sit next to me!"

Looking to his friend for support, Hideki only gets a 'you're on your own with this one' look as Kei sits down and ladles some soup into his bowl. He lets out a yip as Nanna jerks on his arm, causing him to half fall, half sit next to her. She promptly leans in to him and starts rubbing his arm with both her hands.

"Wow, you're strong," she says suggestively. "You must work out."

Hideki's face flushes again at the attention he is getting. Years of laboring on the family farm had left him in excellent shape. After a year in Tokyo going to the cram school and working, he had gone 'soft', as his father would say. Fortunately, the daily workouts at the dorms with Tamiya and the rest of the residents had helped him regain a lot of the strength he had lost after coming to the city. He obviously did not mind getting compliments of course, but he was feeling quit uneasy about the situation. Kei's sister was quite a bit younger than they were.

"Uhg, kill me please," exclaims Kei as he picks up a piece of his fish. "I told you, he's already got a girlfriend," he says as he pops the morsel into his mouth.

"And?" replies Nanna innocently as she looks up at Hideki and flutters her eyes, causing quite a bit of consternation in the older man.

Kei rolls his eyes as he finishes chewing and swallows. "You're too much like Aunt Urd and Peorth for your own good."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" retorts the girl as she snaps her attention to her brother and releases her quarry. She folds her arms across her chest in a huff. "They are perfectly good role models!"

Kei's snickers are cut short as Belldandy enters the room, causing the siblings to clamp their mouths shut while continuing the glare at each other. She was still showing the same youthful appearance she changed to after he arrived. The goddess glances around and instantly discerns what is going on. "Please be civil, children, we do have company with us," she says evenly and without a bit of anger.

"Mrs. Morisato, could you…." starts Hideki, but is interrupted.

"Please, call me Belldandy!"

"…..um, Belldandy, when do you think your sister will get here with Chi?" he asks.

"Not long, I think," replies the goddess. "She has two daughters of her own to get off to school." She hums to herself as she circles the table, kissing Kei on the top of his head as she goes. As she passes the door behind Nanna and Hideki, she is surprised as a man with seemingly unkept salt and pepper hair grabs her and bends her backwards as if completing a waltz. "Keiichi!" she gasps before her husband plants a kiss on her lips.

The kiss is a quick one, and he pulls her back up. "Good morning, my goddess!" he says as he releases her.

Belldandy giggles a bit. "Dear, we mustn't embarrass the children when we have company!"

"That was the idea," he replies with a little mirth. He then glances at Nanna and can see from her frozen expression that the display had its desired effect. He then notices Hideki for the first time, and his expression darkens a bit as he notices the man's proximity to his daughter. "And you are?"

His eye twitches as he tries to think of an escape route. "Hideki Motosuwa," he replies as he starts to stand, only to stop mid-way as Keiichi motions for him to stop.

"Ah, ok, you're Kei's friend. I thought you might be someone else," says the elder Morisato as he sits down across the table from Hideki. "So, let me guess," he says as he puts a finger on his chin and looks away in concentration. "Your girlfriend got a wish, then you said something stupid that messed up the wish, and now you are here to get help to fix the wish?"

"Um, yeah….." says Hideki, not understanding how he would know. "But how…..? Are you a…..?"

"God?" replies Keiichi as he leans over to spoon some soup into his bowl. "Heavens no, I'm as human as they come," he continues as he leans back. He then gives Hideki a wink as his wife steps around and sits next to him. "Bell told me about it this morning."

"Oh," sighs Hideki, instantly relieved. Settling in to finally start eating, he suddenly gets the feeling he is being watched. He glances around the table only to see the other Morisatos were busy with their own conversations or meals. Gradually, he turns around and finds a small boy standing beside him on his left. "Hello," says Hideki after swallowing the morsel he had put into his mouth.

With his unruly mop of black hair and rounded features, the small boy looks almost exactly like his father. The only difference Hideki can discern between this boy and a seven or eight year old Keiichi are his piercing, sapphire blue eyes. "Mommy says I should not talk to strangers," replies the boy.

The college student looks at the boy in confusion, then steals a glance at Belldandy, who he finds has now focused her attention on him as well. She smiles, and somehow all the nervousness he was feeling drains away. Returning his attention back to its original place, he finds the blue eyes have not left him. After a moment of staring quietly at each other, it finally dawns on him what the boy wants. "My name is Hideki Motosuwa," he says as he holds out his hand.

"My name is Keigo, Keigo Morisato," replies the boy happily as he shakes the older man's hand. He then walks past Hideki and takes a place at the table beside him. As he sits, he continues to study the older man. Having gotten the formalities out of the way, Hideki returns his attention to his meal.

"You were loud this morning," says the small boy matter-of-factly. Hideki turns back to the boy to apologize, but is cut off. "Louder than mommy and daddy after they go to bed."

Hideki feels something wet hit him in the side of the face while at the same time the sound of someone spitting in surprise fills the room. He glances over to Keiichi to find the family patriarch's eyes are bugged out in embarrassment. Beside him, Belldandy is blushing and finding things on the walls more interesting than this conversation. The two older Morisato children snicker at their parents' discomfort as Keigo sits, not quite understanding the reactions of those around him.

Keiichi stands abruptly and gulps down the beverage that had been waiting for him when he sat down. "And on that note," he says as he steps around the table, his face still blazing red.

"But dear, you have not finished your breakfast!" complains Belldandy, to no avail.

"I'll be ok," he assures her as he approaches the door. He then motions to his daughter. "Come on Nanna, I'll take you to school."

"But Dad! I was going to call Kazuma and have him pick me up!"

Keiichi stops at the threshold and furrows his brow, trying to remember who that is. "Kazuma Tokia?" he asks after a moment.

Nanna nods excitedly, then looks up at him with huge, saucer shaped puppy dog eyes that seem to ask 'pretty please with sugar on top'?

Her father looks down at her with a skeptical look. "Yeah…no. You're coming with me."

"But DAAAAD!" cries Nanna as she gets up to follow. As she does, she glances over to her mother for a little support.

Belldandy jumps up, causing Nanna to brighten as the intervention she was looking for seems to be about to happen. "Oh! You forgot your lunches!"

The Morisato girl visibly deflates. "MOOOOOM!

As Nanna stomps off after her father followed by Belldandy with two bento boxes. Hideki turns back to his breakfast, doing his best to tune out the squabbling that was still going on down the hall. A soft chuckle draws his attention to his friend. Kei is happily eating with a slight smile on his face. "That was classic," he laughs to himself. He clams up again as Belldandy reenters the room.

She stops for a moment, taking a cleansing breath, then looks down at Hideki. "Mr. Motosuwa, would you like some more tea?"

"Yes ma'am," he replies, and the goddess steps away to go to the kitchen. A few moments later, she returns with a fresh pot and cup. She puts the container in front of him and pours the steaming beverage in to it.

Putting the teapot on the table, Belldandy looks down at Hideki again. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

The tall man ponders asking about Chi again, but sets it aside. "No, thank you," he replies. _Patience, Hideki. If there was a problem, she would tell me._ He watches a she leaves. _Wouldn't she?_ His doubts cloud his mind as he can't help but think that another goddess like her is the one that caused this in the first place. Would she cover for the other is something was not right? Worried to distraction, he fails to notice that his tea has started to fizz.

"Um, you might want to step back!" yells Kei.

His thoughts coming back to reality, he looks down to see his tea is now starting to boil over. His friend's warning falls on deaf ears as Hideki is mesmerized by it, wondering what in the world could cause such a thing to happen. Suddenly, a light bursts forth. Falling back in surprise, he is immediately set upon by a woman with raven hair as she seemingly materializes from the cup.

"OW OW OW!" she screams as she lands on the floor, her feet on either side of Hideki as he falls back. "Belldandy! Why in the Almighty's name do you have to give people such hot beverages!" she yells as she shakes her hands to rid herself of the feeling. From his position on the floor, Hideki gets quite the eye-full up the skirt the woman is wearing, including the color of her underpants, which are blue.

"Hi Auntie Skuld!" greets Keigo from beside Hideki.

Skuld looks down at the boy and smiles. "Hey-ya squirt!" she replies. She is about to reach down and ruffle the boys hair when she notices that he is pointing to something. Following his finger down, she finds the man lying underneath where she is standing. A cloud of anger crosses her face as she sees where his eyes are focused on, totally missing the look of terror on his face.

"How's the view down there, you PERVERT!" she screams. Hideki feels something slam into his face, but does not have time to register what happened as she reaches down and grabs him by the scruff of his collar. In a show of strength that belies her diminutive size, Skuld hauls the taller man up to his feet, then tosses him towards the door.

Hideki lands on his backside with a thud. _Is she a goddess too?! _He raises up on his elbows to see the raven haired woman wave her arms, then bring her hands close in front of her, about twelve inches apart. A shimmering blue sphere forms in front of her, nearly filling the void between. In a panic, he scrambles up to his feet to run. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his friend Kei attempt to intervene, but it's too late.

"SKULD COLD WATER BLASTER ATTACK!"

The blue orb flies at Hideki with incredible speed, smashing into his face and sending him careening onto the floor. The water from the orb covers his body as well as the floor, and he slides down the hall from the momentum of the impact. As he comes to a stop, he squints his eyes and shakes his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from the hit he just took.

"Well, hello handsome!"

Hideki's heart freezes when he hears this. Tentatively, he opens his eyes and finds himself looking up a pair of long, tan legs. A black skirt is the only cover for the nether regions for this individual, and the result is a crimson gush from his nose. The woman takes a step back and squats above him, looking down at him with her violet eyes. A mane of silver white hair frames her face. As his vision starts to blur, he notices three triangles that adorn her forehead and checks, as well as a huge smile.

The last thing Hideki hears before his world goes dark from blood loss is a sweet, familiar voice. One that he has been yearning to hear all morning.

"Chi?"


	5. For A Price

-5-

"Urd! Skuld! Welcome!" exclaims Belldandy happily as she walks into the hall after the disturbance. She then looks down and sees Hideki passed out on the floor. "Um, what happened to Mr. Motosuwa?"

"That pervert peeked up my skirt, then Urd's!" exclaims Skuld as she marches into the hall and passes Bell. Kei and Keigo follow her in hot pursuit. "But I took care of him," she says smugly as she stops over the unconscious man, crossing her arms in triumph.

Keigo steps up next to Skuld and points. "Pervvvvvert!" he says, causing Kei to snicker at the expense of his stricken friend, who now has the word written across his face.

Belldandy sighs as she comes up behind the group. "Keigo, run along and brush your teeth, your bus will be here any moment." Keigo nods and scampers off to the bathroom. She looks down at Hideki, then up to her younger sister. "Skuld, please remove that from his face and help Urd take him to the guest room."

"But Big Sis! He was looking up my skirt!" complains Skuld.

Kie steps up and gives his dark haired aunt a grin. "In his defense, you did materialize out of his teacup."

Skuld deflates a little as she realizes she may have overreacted, if only just a little. She leans down and waves her hand over Hideki, causing the word to disappear from his face. She then glares up at Urd, who has not moved a muscle. "Well?"

"Why do I have to help?!" asks the silver haired goddess incredulously while placing her hands on her hips. "I wasn't the one that sent him skidding across the floor!"

"No, you weren't," replies Belldandy evenly. She then glances down at Urd's black miniskirt, then looks back into her violet eyes. "But, you were the one that caused him to pass out."

Urd's face turns red, and she sticks a finger out as if she is going to respond. Her retort fails to materialize as she stares at the serious face of the middle Norn. Letting out a long sigh, she steps around to the opposite side of Hideki and starts to help Skuld.

"Chi?"

Belldandy's attention is turned to the originator of that sound. Standing off to the side is a diminutive girl with long, platinum blond hair. Directly behind her with one hand on the girl's shoulder is Peorth. Kei comes up beside his mother, his eyes wide, clearly amazed at what they are seeing.

"Wow, Peorth!" he exclaims. He had met the small persocom a number of times in the past, and is quite shocked by the change. "Hideki told me what happened, but I am not sure I really believed him until now."

Peorth conjures a rose petal in her hand. She holds it up to her mouth and blows, causing it to fly out and smack Kie in the forehead. "I told you to call me Aunty," she replies in a menacing tone and a smile in her face. As Kei rubs his head where the petal impacted, she turns more serious. "She has a problem."

XXX

Hideki wakes up, but does not open his eyes. He hears some voices close by, but is not sure who they are. Not really caring, there are two thoughts on his mind. The first is whether or not he had heard Chi before he passed out. Hope welled up in him at the prospect. It's been almost half a day since she went missing. While it was comforting that she was in what was supposed to be a safe place at Belldandy's sister's house, it still did not alleviate his guilt over what he had said to her. He needed to see her now and make things right.

The second was the dream he just had about being chased by a black haired woman in a hockey mask wielding a machete. Following closely behind her was a silver haired woman with nearly no clothes on, trying to kiss him. Not knowing what to think about that, Hideki turns towards one of the voices.

The same raven haired woman from his dreams is sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Wearing a peach colored dress and white blouse, she is turned slightly away, but her attention is squarely on him. He recalls the angry twenty-something year old woman that appeared magically from his teacup and his subsequent escape attempt, fall, and skid down the hall. As his memories return to him, Hideki pushes up and tries to scramble away from her.

Turning as he gets up, he smashes head first into the buxom chest of another. He looks up and sees the silver white hair and purple irises of the woman he saw before passing out before. Her eyes narrow in annoyance at his current predicament. Panicking and unable to breath, Hideki reaches up and pushes away from the bronze skinned woman. Unfortunately, he cups the mounds on either side of his face in doing so. As he falls again, he hears a howl of laughter from the black haired lady he was originally trying to get away from.

Landing on his rump, he looks up at the silver haired woman, who is staring back at him in open-mouthed shock. "I'm sorry!" he screams.

"You…..you…." she starts but is seemingly unable to put together a coherent sentence.

"It was an accident!"

As the raven haired woman continues to laugh, the silver haired one's face contorts in rage. "You ARE a pervert!" she screams. "My girls are reserved for one man and one man only!" She raises her right hand over her head. He sees electricity start to spark from her fingertips. "And you ain't him!"

"Oh crap!" yells Hideki. Frantically, he looks around for an escape route. Unfortunately, there is none.

"_I SUMMON…"_

"Stop it!" yells the raven haired woman as she streaks past Hideki. Snatching the electrically charged hand down, she expertly twists it behind the bronze woman's back and holds it there with her arm. As she completes that, she wraps her other arm around the neck of Hideki's would be attacker, causing purple eyes to bug out a little and a raspy wheeze to escape her throat. "Jeez Urd, and you call me the unbalanced one?"

As Urd continues to struggle against her assailant, the raven haired woman looks and smiles down at Hideki, reminding him somewhat of the resident goddess. "Hi, I'm Skuld, Belldandy's younger sister," she says calmly, still maintaining her hold against the flailing arms of the silver haired woman with seemingly little effort. "Sorry for trying to kill you back there. Old habits die hard."

Hideki relaxes a little as he realizes that he is not actually about to die. He watches on as Skuld maintains her arm bar, headlock combination on the silver haired woman. Slowly, she starts to calm down, either because she is turning blue, or because she has realizes that resistance is futile. A moment later, she stops all together.

"And this idiot is my older sister, Urd," says Skuld without releasing her quarry. "She apologizes too. _Right_?"

Urd raises her free hand and sticks up her middle finger.

"I guess that will have to do," says Skuld as she releases her.

"You guys are goddesses!" exclaims Hideki, still in a little shock.

"Well, DUH!" replies Urd, finally able to breath. She finishes it off by sticking out her tongue. Rubbing her neck, she turns to her younger sister. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Oh, I've been taking some lessons from Lind!" exclaims Skuld with a smug looks on her face.

Before Urd can offer a retort, the room's shoji screen door slides open to reveal Belldandy. She looks at her two sisters and frowns slightly, then notices Hideki. "Oh, you're awake! Please come this way, we have things to discuss."

Hideki holds back, waiting for the goddesses to go before him. Urd glares at Hideki for a second before walking past Belldandy into the hall. Skuld smiles and waves him forward. A brief moment of indecision occurs between the two as they both motion for the other to proceed. Finally, she relents and follows her sister. The tall man is not far behind. As he enters the hall, he notices another woman standing in front of a door. She has short black hair, a black swimsuit, and brown leather that drapes over her shoulders. Hideki cannot decide if they were shoulder pads or wings. He pauses in front of the new person. "Are you a goddess too?"

The woman smiles at him. "Handsome AND perceptive. I like him already!" she purrs.

"Peorth, now is not the time," scolds Belldandy.

"Right," she says. "As Belldandy indicated, my name is Peorth, Goddess First Class, Unlimited License, Second Category." She reaches out her hand, and he grasps it and gives it a good shake. "And if you ever qualify for a wish, I will make sure that I am the one to grant it."

The rose goddess winks, and Hideki blushes furiously at her flirtations. Before he can say anything, he is cut off by an exasperated sigh from behind him.

"Almighty in heaven, you're incorrigible, Peorth!" yells Skuld, obviously annoyed.

Hideki again tries to interject, but is cut off again. "What?" cries Peorth. "Just because I'm not monogamous like you thr…."

"Oh, ho ho!" exclaims Urd from Hideki's left, cutting her off. "So then you won't mind if I tell Tamiya about your little dalliances, hmmmm?"

Hideki cannot help but think that they are getting off track. Being flanked on all sides by four goddesses was not helping matters. So much has happened just in the last few minutes. He has a burning question he needs to ask, but cannot seem to get a word in edgewise. He is interrupted again by Peorth. "You wouldn't dare!" she exclaims, suddenly defensive as she shoots an icy glare at the silver haired goddess, who just smiles mischievously in return.

Urd's response is cut short as Belldandy coughs to get everyone's attention. She then turns to Hideki. "Mr. Motosuwa, I believe you were going to ask about Chi?"

"YES!" he exclaims excitedly as he grabs the blue eyed goddess' shoulders. "Where is she? Is she ok? Can I see her?"

Belldandy smiles, taking Hideki's excitement in stride. "She is in here," she says and motions to the door behind Peorth. The black haired goddess hesitates for a second, as if not wanting to let him in, then relents. Sitting on the floor staring out the window and stroking a small black cat sitting in her lap is his beloved Chobit. "I have to warn you, she is not herself."

Hideki does not hear the last part as he rushes into the room. He lands on his knees and throws his arms around her. "Chi! I was so worried!" he exclaims as he pulls her to him. The cat in her lap hisses and bolts away from them. "I'm so sorry! I won't ever say anything like that to you again!"

"Chi….yi….yi…..yi?" is the only response he gets from her as he rocks her back and forth vigorously.

Realizing something is amiss, Hideki stops glomping her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he holds her at arm's length and looks her over with a critical eye. Physically, she seems fine. There are subtle differences for sure, but those can be attributed to the radical change she has gone through. Looking into her eyes, though, they are vacant and expressionless. He thinks back to when she may have ever looked like this, and the only thing he can come up with is right after he activated her. But even then, there was something there. Now she almost seems lifeless. "Chi, speak to me!" he implores to her.

The platinum blonde girl blinks, but otherwise does nothing.

"Oh my god, her memory has been erased!" he yells. Hideki angrily whirls around on the goddesses, forgetting that they are powerful omnipotent beings. "Which one of you did this!"

Peorth is the first one to speak up. "All I did was change her, she was fine when I left her," she says nonchalantly while shrugging her shoulders.

"This one played around with her memories," says the cat as it rubs up against the silver haired goddess' leg.

Now too angry to even register the fact that felines cannot speak, he turns to Urd. "What did you do?!"

The bronze goddess stares angrily at the black cat. "I. Didn't. Do. Anything!" she grinds out through clenched teeth before kicking at it.

"You had to have, the cat said…"

Turning to Hideki, Urd's violet eyes flash in annoyance. "All I did was playback her memories!"

Becoming desperate, he turns to Skuld. "Then you had to have done something!"

"Don't look at me, bub," replies the raven haired goddess. "I've just been pulled in on a consult."

He turns back to Peorth. "Then it has to be a symptom, a reaction to what you did!"

"Non non non!" exclaims the rose goddess, waving him off with both her hands. "My spell was perfectly executed. It was this second class that had to have done something," she says, motioning back to Urd.

Nearly ready to explode, Urd's face contorts in anger. "How many frakking times do I have to say it! All I did…"

"STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Hideki and the three goddesses he is bickering with immediately fall to the floor, compelled to cover their ears by the sheer volume of Belldandy's command spell. Kei, who is standing next to his mother, uses his pinky finger to clear out the ear closest to her. "Thanks, mom," he deadpans.

Ignoring the comment, Belldandy stares down at the four combatants. The three goddesses shy away from her, while Hideki still looks back in shock. "This arguing is getting us no where!"

The first to snap out of the funk, Urd moves to stand up. "Your right!" she exclaims as she reaches over and grabs Hideki by the collar. Before he can react, she pulls him past the shocked Belldandy. Finally coming to his senses, he struggles in futility as the bronze skinned goddess drags him out of the temple, down the steps, and across the courtyard. Belldandy trails behind, pleading with her sister to let the man go. When they get to the main gate, Urd hauls him up by the collar, then deposits him at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the main entrance. "Since this is mostly YOUR fault, this is what you are going to do!" she yells from the top of the steps, pointing down at him menacingly. A black orb, crackling with electrical power forms on the end of her finger for added emphasis.

Afraid of what might happen next, Hideki jumps up and snaps to attention, not wanting to anger the goddess any more than he apparently already has.

"I can make a potion to cure all of this," says Urd, still pointing at him. "The only thing I am missing are purple and gold snapdragons with rectangular shaped leaves."

"Purple and gold snapdragons with rectangular leaves, GOT IT!"

Urd's eyes go wide with surprise as Hideki starts running down the road faster than she thought possible, the breeze from his departure ruffling her hair. Belldandy steps up to stand next to her, and they watch his flight down the hill.

"Sister," starts Belldandy as he finally disappears from sight. "You do realize that a potion is not what is required to solve this?"

"Yep."

"And that snapdragons are not native to Japan?" continues the blue eyed goddess.

"Mmm-hmmm."

"And that they do not come in purple and gold?"

"Uh-huh," replies Urd. "I wanted to get him out of the way for a while so that there are no more distractions while we help the girl."

"Ah," is all Belldandy can think of to say as she cannot refute her sister's logic. They are about to return to the temple when they notice a car coming up the road that leads to the entrance they are standing at. Before it comes to a stop at the bottom of the steps, the rear passenger door opens, and a middle aged woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a brown and white dress jumps out and rushes up to the goddesses.

"Where is my daughter Chi?! Where is Mr. Motosuwa?" she pleads, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Oh my!" exclaims Belldandy as she glances to Urd, then back to the panicky woman. "Um, Chi is inside, and I am afraid you just missed Mr. Motosuwa."

From behind the woman, a tall man with black hair follows her up the steps. He is wearing a black trench coat and pants, and black sunglasses with a single lens that stretches from temple to temple. The goddesses immediately recognize him as a persocom when they see he has a trapezoidal box on either side of his head instead of ears. "I believe we passed him, Miss Hibiya," he quips upon reaching the top of the stairs. Beside him is a petite woman with short brown hair and a long, black, sleeveless trench coat with two brown belts, one across her waist and one across her chest. She has tight fitting black shorts on underneath, below which, black straps circle her legs at random intervals.

Miss Hibiya steps closer to the goddesses, her hands still clasped in front of her as if she were praying. "Please, I need to see her, is she alright?" The worry is evident in her voice.

Belldandy's heart breaks a little at seeing the woman like this. No stranger to tragedy herself, she steps up and puts her arm around Miss Hibiya's shoulders. "Please, come with us, we will show you," she says as she starts to lead her to the front door of the temple.

As they walk off, Zima looks down at his companion and smiles. "Dita love, be a dear and get Miss Hibiya's tools."

The smaller persocom looks up at him and frowns. "What do I look like to you, a porter?"

XXX

After they reach the entrance of the temple, the group pauses to allow the stragglers to catch up. When they enter, they are greeted by two other women in the central hallway. Ms. Hibiya notes the state of dress of one of the women, but says nothing. A young man, who identifies himself as Kie and the son of the woman called Belldandy, excuses himself to leave for school.

Belldandy leads her to a room, opens the door and allows Chitose to enter. Ms. Hibiya gasps upon seeing her daughter, then rushes up and hugs her in a similar fashion as Hideki, but less enthusiastic. It is then that she, like Chi's boyfriend before, notices something is wrong. The girl barely reacts to her. The apartment manager breaks the hug to look into her daughter's chocolate brown eyes. _Her expression is as blank as if she had been…_ Chitose banishes that thought out of her mind. She cannot bare to think of how Hideki would react if her memory has been wiped. She turns to Dita and asks for her tools.

"Um, Ms. Hibiya," says Zima, pointing to the small boxes on the side of his head that take the place of a persocom's ears.

The woman stares at him for a second, not comprehending what he is referring to, then looks back to her daughter. It is only then that she realizes that the small pink and white port covers that should be on either side of Chi's head, are missing. Chitose immediately grabs the blonde girl's face and turns it to the side so that she can get a good look at it. There, impossible as it may seem to her, is a perfectly formed human ear. Turning her to the other side, she sees another. "Oh my god!" she exclaims looking to the other four women in shock. "Who modified her like this?"

"That would be this one," replies the silver haired woman who had introduced herself as Urd while se surreptitiously points at the scantily clad woman next to her.

Ms. Hibiya stares at the one named Peorth with more than a little indignation. "Why?" is the only thing that she can think to say, unable to come up with any logical reason that someone would modify a persocom to look human.

"Well," starts the black haired woman, "it is what she wished."

"To look like a person?"

"Non, to _be_ a person," replies Peorth evenly.

At first, Chitose frowns at what to her seems like a non sequitor. _What does she mean 'be a person'? _Her eyes go wide at the implication. She turns to Chi, who stares blankly at nothing in particular. She grabs the girl's face again and opens her mouth, then gasps at what she sees. Throwing a worried look over her shoulder at Peorth, she then gently pushes her daughter gently onto her back. Before anyone can react, she checks for the power switch, and finds something completely different.

A thread of disbelief forms in her mind as she looks down at the girl. She looks back at the Peorth. "Is this some form of sick joke?" she says angrily. "Where is my daughter!"

The four women look at each other, then back to the angry mother. "Ms. Hibiya, this is very difficult to explain," says Belldandy after a moment.

"Ladies," starts Zima. "I expect that you will explain to our satisfaction, or my companion and I will have to use force." Chitose sees the look of determination on the tall persocom's face.

"That would be a huge mistake on your part," replies Urd, the threat in her voice is unmistakable.

"Urd, please," chides Belldandy. Urd shoots her an angry look, but backs off. The brunette turns her attention to the angry mother in front of her. "Ms. Hibiya, before I explain, I need you to understand that there are powers at work here that are beyond your's and your companion's comprehension." She motions to the other three women, then back to herself. "The four of us are goddesses. I am Goddess First Class Belldandy." She then motions to the other three again in turn. "This is Goddess First Class Peorth, my older sister, Goddess Second Class Urd, and my younger sister, Goddess Second Class Skuld."

Chitose sits back on her haunches, not sure what to say. After a moment, it is Zima that verbalizes what she was thinking.

"Ok, what kind of drugs are the four of you on?"

"I can assure you, I am not lying. As a first class goddess, I am incapable of that." Belldandy then looks at the other three, then holds her hands up. Chanting something under her breath that Chitose cannot understand, an orb of light appears and floats above them. She looks to the others, who follow her lead.

Chi's mother scrambles backwards towards Zima and Dita. "A magic trick?" she says, half accusing, half trying to convince herself.

"Yes, it is magic, but I can assure you that it is not a trick," replies Belldandy.

Chitose looks up to Zima, who seems to be transfixed by the display. He breaks away after a moment and looks down at her. "I have done a cursory search in the archives, I cannot find any known magic trick that explains what they have just done."

Ms. Hibiya looks back at the so called goddesses. Belldandy, seeming to pick up on the doubt and fear in her eyes, smiles. "I can assure you, we mean you no harm," she says. "On the contrary, one of our purposes is to grant wishes to those that deserve them." The chestnut haired goddess motions to Chi. "It was determined that she was to receive a wish, and Peorth was summoned to grant it."

"When I appeared to her, her greatest wish was to become human," continues Peorth, picking up where Belldandy left off.

Chitose considers this for a moment. Would Chi ask for something like this? After a moment, the answer came to her; if she felt it would improve her relationship with Hideki, she would. While Chi, and Elda before her, did not have quite as much of an independent streak as her older sister, when she did show it, the platinum blonde had it in spades. The worried mother looks back to her daughter, who still is just sitting there with no expression on her face. She decides to go along with the charade a little longer. "So, if this is my daughter, why is she catatonic like this?"

"Heh, about that," stammers Peorth. She then begins to explain to Chitose her experience with entering her soul.

It was all fantastical to the woman. A shrinking valley with a seemingly out of place building in the middle, a server room with nothing connected. As the story continues, it becomes more and more unbelievable. Right up until the black haired woman relates to her about the black clad version of Chi that attacked her. Ms. Hibiya listens intently as the goddess relates details about the doppelganger that very few knew. After a moment, any doubt she had to the validity of the story are gone.

"Freya," breaths Chitose.

"Come again?" replies Peorth.

"Before Chi became Chi, she was known as Elda," says Ms. Hibiya. "She had a twin sister, who died. Her name was Freya." Chitose chokes a little on the unpleasant memory. "Before Freya died, Elda took her memories inside of her. Even though Elda's memories were erased, Freya's survived inside of Chi."

Peorth's eyes go wide at the revelation. She glances over to Belldandy. "Do you think it's possible?"

"It would certainly make sense, considering what you say when you entered her soul," replies the blue eyed goddess with a nod. "Ms. Hibiya, for what purpose were Chi and Freya created for?"

"They were built by my husband to be our daughters," replies Chitose.

The two first class goddesses look at each other again. "It fits," says Peorth.

"What? What fits?" asks the increasingly worried mother, a concerned look on her face.

Belldandy turns to her. "I believe both girls had souls of their own. When Freya was sick, Elda did not take in her memories, she took in her soul. Both souls survived to this day."

"So Freya's soul was changed as well?"

"Yes," replies Belldandy.

"When we enter someone's soul, what we see is a representation of them," says Peorth. "Because of her origin, I believe that the building and the servers literally represent the sum of what Chi has become."

"Mon cheri, the situation could be quite dire," continues Peorth. "Freya told me that she was protecting her sister when she disconnected anything. If we were to say that the computers inside of the building are Chi's memories, then they have been disconnected from her soul." Peorth motions to the former persocom. "If we leave her like this much longer, we may never get her back. We will need to go back in and fix her while also keeping Freya at bay. I fear that she will not understand what we are doing and attack us again."

"Ah ha!" exclaims Skuld. "Now I know why you asked me here! You need help with the servers in her soul!"

Urd rolls her eyes. "Took you long enough," she quips.

"Quiet, you!" exclaims the raven haired goddess. "If it weren't for you, Freya would not have disconnected everything!"

A flash of anger mares the silver hair goddess' features, but is tempered by a glance from her middle sister. She leans back and stews as Belldandy speaks up. "Ms. Hibiya, we believe that you can assist us. Before you came, Skuld was the only one who could possibly make any headway with the machinery."

Without even waiting to understand how such a thing can be accomplished, Chitose readily agrees. When it comes to her daughter, there is nothing she would not do to help.

"After hearing you description, I believe that Dita and I can help," chimes Zima, causing everyone's attention to be directed to him.

"How so?" inquires Belldanday.

The tall persocom smiles, and gestures to his companion. "She is programmed with the ability to hack in to almost any persocom, including Chi and Freya. Based on what you have said, Freya still exhibits persocom like abilities. My lovely companion would be the perfect choice to distract her." He then gestures to himself. "I can assist with identifying what cables go where by directly interfacing with the systems and deciphering how the connections should be made to properly put her back together."

Peorth frowns at the suggestion. "But how would we do that? You are persocoms."

"And you are goddesses," replies Zima. "Can you not figure it out?"

"Hold on one sec," interrupts Urd, who turns to her youngest sister. "This is the part where Skuld whips up some doohickey that she invented that does exactly what we need."

"Huh? Me?" replies Skuld, suddenly acting very sheepish. "Well, I don't know, I've been trying to use my magic more often than not."

"WHAT?!" exclaim Peorth and Urd in unison.

Skuld looks back to the two goddesses with an almost guilty expression on her face. "It's something Lind and Belldandy want me to do."

Urd lets out a long sigh. "Well, there goes that idea."

"But I did just happen to have this!" exclaims a much more excited Skuld as she jumps up and seemingly conjures a device out of thin air, causing the oldest sister to facefault. She raises it over her head as if it were a trophy she just won. "The PersaConnect Express 3000! It allows for a persocom to be connected to almost anything!"

"Oh, how cliché," quips Zima.

Skuld ignores the comment. "We can use it to connect you to me, and then I can be the medium to bring you into Chi's soul with me."

Belldandy visibly brightens, and looks to Zima. "So you will help as well, then?"

"Yes, under one condition," replies the tall persocom. "The goddesses have to make Dita and myself human as well."

XXX

His heart pounding in his ears, his face blushing furiously, Hideki stares at the shop in front of him. It isn't the flowers or the chocolates that are eliciting this reaction. It's something much more menacing. _Who puts lingerie in a flower shop?! _He had visited at least twenty shops so far today since leaving the temple. None of them had what he was looking for. Some of them even went so far as to laugh. There was no such thing as purple and gold snapdragons, they said.

"Well, a goddess needs them to help Chi, and by Kami, I'm going to find them." Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he tries to calm himself. "It's no big deal, just go in and ask about the flowers, then go!" he says to no one in particular. As he steels himself for the inevitable, he pumps his fist in the air. "Just one step at a time!"

"Mommy, he's scary!"

"Don't stare, just keep walking, honey!"

_Dammit, I'm doing it again!_ Clenching his fist, he makes his decision. Building his nerve, he picks up his right foot and starts to lean towards his destination. As he does, he sees something that causes him to freeze. Inside the shop, the female clerk is on the phone and... _Oh my god she's looking right at me! She probably thinks I'm some kind of deviant and has called the police!_ Pivoting on his left foot, he frantically turns to walk away.

As he takes his first step, he trips due to the sudden change in direction. Stumbling forward, Hideki falls face first into a woman. In his panic, he pushes off of her, not realizing that he has done so by placing his hands on the soft mounds on either side of her chest. "I'm so..."

"YOU PERVERT!"

Before Hideki can react, he feels a vicious uppercut connect with his chin, followed by the sensation of flying.

XXX

As the brunette rubs her now sore knuckles, a dark haired man with narrow, rectangular glasses and a white lab coat comes up behind her. "Wow Naru, you really got some air with that one!"

"Well, my finely tuned reflexes come from years of practice, Keitaro."

XXX

"Surely you can't be serious," exclaims Urd.

"I am serious," replies Zima evenly. "And don't….."

Peorth interrupts him with a wave of her hand. "Just….don't." She stands and steps over to the two persocoms and places a hand on each of their shoulders. She closes her eyes, and a soft glow begins to emanate from them. After a moment, she steps back with a sad look on her face.

"I'm sorry, but it's just not possible, mon ami. Chi had something that you do not as yet possess."

Zima eyes her suspiciously. "What is that?"

"A soul," replies the goddess.

Zima frowns at this. Chitose can see that he is irritated at the proclamation. "How is it that she has one and we do not?" he says, gesturing to Chi.

Peorth shrugs her shoulders. "I don't have an explanation for that," she says as she returns to her spot next to Belldandy.

"I might," replies Skuld. "Ms Hibiya, you mentioned that Chi and her sister were created to be children for you?"

"Yes," replies Chitose.

"Then that's the answer!" proclaims the raven haired goddess, crossing her arms in self-satisfaction.

The irritated look on Zima's face is unmistakable. "What are you talking about?"

"I think I know," says Belldandy as she turns to Ms. Hibiya. "What my sister is saying is that your husband….."

"Ichiro Mihara," says Chitose, filling in the blank that the goddess was looking for.

"….Mr. Hihara poured all of his love into their creation," continues the blue eyed goddess. "Just as in the creation of a new biological life, his love planted the seed that later became Chi's soul." She glances over to her younger sister with a smile. "Skuld did the same thing with her robots."

Zima's face turns from irritation to an approximation of sadness. "So, you are saying that Dita and I, since he did not love us, cannot ever reach the same level she did?"

Chitose's heart breaks seeing Zima so downcast. She turns around to fully face him. "Don't ever think that your father did not love you any more or less than any of his other creations!" she exclaims forcefully. Zima looks at her in surprise as she reaches over and puts her hands on his shoulders. "From his littlest Angel, to his precious Chobits, to you and Dita, he loved you all more than life itself." She looks into his eyes and sees the sadness subside, but not completely go away. She could only imagine what it is like to reach that brick wall that you can never get past, only to see others like you sprint ahead.

"Zima, have you ever heard of the phrase 'The Ghost in the Machine'?" inquires Chitose.

"No," he replies.

"It was something that your father once talked about before he died," she says, placing a hand on his cheek. "He believed whole-heartedly that persocoms would develop certain aspects of being human that were not programmed into them. He said that as your code gets more complex, it could start to mutate in a similar manner as DNA does in humans. Eventually, persocoms will become sentient, and start having dreams and aspirations of their own."

The persocom sighs. "I already have dreams and aspirations of my own."

"I know, perhaps the seed is there for you as well," replies Chitose. "Perhaps you just need to be patient."

From behind her, Skuld clears her throat to get everyone's attention. "If I may, I think have an alternative!"

* * *

A/N: Hoping to have a quick turn around on the next chapter (already 9 pages into it). Was planning to release 5 and 6 together, but that didn't happen.

Just a reminder that when I write stories, I try to post in my profile my progress about every 2 weeks (or less if I remember). If you are curious as to what my progress is or what I may have coming up, it will be there.

And here is the obligatory reminder that if you have read this far, leave a review! It helps keep authors motivated!


	6. Portal to the Soul

-6-

Hideki twists and looks down as he flies through the air, only to see the top of a building rushing up to meet him. He tucks himself into a ball, bracing for the impact to come. The roof barely stops his descent as he falls through. It is just enough, though, to make his landing relatively softer. It helps that his aim is good, as he lands in the middle of a mound of soft soil. It almost completely envelopes him as his momentum comes to a stop.

Sitting up, he shakes the dirt from him head, then reaches up and wipes some of it from his face. As he blinks his eyes and focuses, he sees that he appears to have landed in some sort of greenhouse. Flowers of all types grow in long boxes supported by wooden sawhorses, arranged in neat rows to allow easy access for tending. Hideki thanks what little luck he has been having today that he did not land in the middle of one of the flowerbeds. _That would have been even more painful._

A light tapping on the hard floor draws his attention to the approach of a short, elderly man with a cane wearing black kashaya robes. As he gets closer, Hideki can see that one of the man's eyes is covered by a black patch with an ornate, gold dragon on it. The tall man lifts himself out of the dirt as the elderly man stops and appraises him.

"Fertilizer grows more than flowers, it seems, hrm?" A raspy giggle escapes from the old man's throat as he looks up at Hideki.

"Heh, no, I fell through the roof," replies the taller man.

"Mmmmmm, harsh mistress, gravity is. Yes." The elderly man turns and starts to walk back down the row, waving for Hideki to follow with his free hand. "Come, come, Yoshi knows where one can get cleaned up!"

With a shrug, Hideki falls in line behind the old man, who leads him to a small bathroom in a small room adjacent to the greenhouse. After he enters, he does his best to clean his face and hands, but realizes that his clothes are ruined. As he contemplates what to do about that, a knock at the door startles him for a moment. He opens it to find the old man standing just outside with a fresh set of robes. Hideki takes them from him and looks them over. "Where did you get this?"

"It is not to ask, it is only to accept an old man's kindness," replies Yoshi with a smile.

"I really cannot take th...OUCH!" Hideki jumps back on his left foot, after the old man smashed his cane down on the instep of his right.

"Oy! Hurt old man's feelings!"

_Hurt his feelings?!_ A couple of choice words come to him. Rather than speak what is on his mind, Hideki graciously accepts the robes and closes the door. A few minutes later he emerges from the bathroom wearing the perfectly fitting kashaya robes the old man had provided. _How did he find some in my size so quickly?_

Yoshi claps his hands and smiles in glee. "If a haircut you get, an excellent monk, you would be!"

Hideki gives the old man a wane smile. After visiting so many stores today, he is exhausted, and not particularly in the mood to humor the old man. "Thank for the robes," he says without a hint of emotion. "I will find a way to pay you back."

Yoshi looks Hideki over with a critical eye. "Why so glum are you, hmm?"

"I think karma is trying to punish me," replies Hideki, almost under his breath.

The old man perks up. "Karma? Ahhh! Powerful goddess is she, powerful goddess." He steps over and pokes Hideki with his cane. "Good to be on her bad side, it is not!"

The word goddess is the last thing Hideki wants to hear right now. He's had it up to the top of his six foot one frame with goddesses. With the exception of Belldandy, all of the ones he has met so far have done something to seemingly ruin or endanger his life, especially Peorth and Urd. If it weren't for the fact that what he was looking for would help Chi, he would have abandoned this quest a long time ago. He immediately squelches any anger he is feeling, the old man didn't know the source of his misery.

"So? What is it that you seek?" asks the old man. "Maybe help I can provide."

Hideki scoffs at the idea. "I doubt it, no one seems to have what I need."

"Tell Yoshi what that may be."

With an audible sigh, the younger man contemplates whether or not to say anything. Surely if he mentions that a goddess had sent him on a quest to find what seems to be a non-existent flower, the old man would think he was crazy. After a moment, he decides to tell him half. "Purple and gold snapdragons with rectangular shaped leaves."

A huge smile spreads across the old man's face. "Ha! Have exactly what you are looking for, Yoshi does!"

Hideki blinks in surprise. "What! Wow! Can I have some?" he exclaims. Forgetting any semblance of decorum, he drops down to his knees in front of the old man and grabs hold of his robes. "I really need some, PLEASE! The florist all said they don't exist!"

"Florists, bah! Fools they are, always so smug in their beliefs," replies Yoshi as he breaks free of Hideki's grasp. If he was offended, he does not show it. "Outside of their quaint little shops, their minds are closed to what is possible."

Trying to follow the priest on his knees, Hideki starts to beg. "If you give me some, I swear I will pay you back. I'm a good worker, I was raised on a farm!"

The old man walks over to a corner to a small table. There are two red sitting pillows on either side. In the middle of the table is a cup with a single stick of incense burning away. "Come, sit!" offers Yoshi, gesturing to one of the pillows. "To keep an old man company, your payment will be."

Hideki starts to balk. He does not have time for this. "But I really need to…"

"Oy! Time is short, yes?" interrupts the old man. "Come, meditate on this we will."

The younger man balks at this. If time is short, then why should they be meditating? Shouldn't they be hurrying? After a moment, he relents and bends down onto the pillow and sits on his knees. "But I don't know how….."

"Oy! Smell the flowers, you will," says Yoshi as he removes the stick from the cup and replaces it with snapdragons. Each one has a slender stalk, with a whorl of flowers taking up the top foot or so. Each of the petals is a rich, deep purple, rimmed in a glittering gold. Hideki is so mesmerized by the beautiful plants, he does not register that they seemingly came from nowhere. A sense of calm overtakes him.

Yoshi sits down across the table from Hideki and smiles. "Let them be your guide."

XXX

The TV room at the Tariki Hongon temple has been completely emptied of furniture, save for a chair on one of side of the room. In it, Chitose Hibiya watches as the two first class goddesses work. Using what appears to be finger paint from Belldandy's youngest son's room, they are in the process of finishing up an intricate design on the floor consisting of three circles in a triangle pattern joined by a larger, central circle. Inside the central circle are three more circles in a row that bisects the triangle, one that takes up nearly half of the area inside, with the other two on either side of that. One side of the two circles is touching the outer circle, with the other touching the edge of the inner.

As Belldandy had explained to Chitose earlier, she and Peorth would have to work together on a spell to send Urd, Skuld, Zima, Dita, and herself into Chi's soul in order to fix whatever damage has been caused. The spell circle they are drawing is supposed to help them focus their power so that they can accomplish this.

Standing to her left are Zima and Dita. The tall persocom is watching in rapt fascination, while his smaller counterpart appears to care less about what's going on. To her right sits the goddess Urd, filing her fingernails while floating three feet off the ground.

"Are we there yet, mommy? I'm hungry!"

Peorth's head snaps up, glaring at the origin of the snide remark. Urd smirks back at her as she pushes back a loch of her silver-white hair.

"Almost honey, just a few more minutes!" replies Belldandy, who is so completely absorbed by her project that it does not register to her where the comment came from. This elicits a slight giggle from her sister and a roll of the eyes from the rose goddess.

After a few moments, the goddesses stand and look over their worth. Belldandy turns to the four spectators. "Zima, can you please assist me in getting Chi to the middle of the mandala, please?" Ignoring the audible sigh from his companion, the tall persocom walks around the design on the floor to the other side of the room. Chitose looks on as he helps the blue eyed goddess pick up her daughter and carry her. "Mind the lines, please," says Belldandy as they tip-toe through the design and deposit the platinum haired girl in the middle. Everyone in the room notices that she does not respond in any way to being carried over. In the last half hour, Chi's condition has deteriorated to where she is nearly comatose.

"We must make haste," says Belldandy with more than a little worry in her voice. She moves to the inner circle to Chi's left, while Peorth steps into the one on the right. "Ms. Hibiya, please come sit here," she says, indicating the outer circle that could be called the top of the triangle they form.

Urd steps into one of the outer circles, then looks around. "Where is Sk..."

She is interrupted by the door sliding open. Skuld steps into the room as if she were a conquering hero. "I'm ready!" she announces, throwing one of her fists into the air.

A couple of guffaws escape from Urd and Peorth. Chitose herself suppresses a slight giggle. The raven haired goddess is wearing what appears to be the skeletal remains of half of an oversized soccer ball on her head. It reminds the apartment manager of a scene in a classic movie from the eighties where a time traveling boy first meets the past version of the scientist that sent him back in time. The image is completed as Skuld reaches up and pulls two cables from the contraption, then walks over to the last empty circle. "Dita and Zima, take these and plug in."

The two persocoms move to her side and comply. Immediately, they go still, a slight humming noise emanating from inside both of them. Their eyes go blank, with the exception of some white lines streaking across their irises. Skuld then looks at Belldandy and nods, indicating she is ready.

The blue eyed goddess returns her sister's nod, then turns to Chitose. "Peorth and I will begin the spell that will allow us to channel the five of you into Chi's soul. We will maintain it throughout, but you will not have much time. In order to augment the spell, we will bring forth our angels. Please do not be alarmed."

Ms. Hibiya nods. Belldandy turns to Peorth. "Angel, come forth!" they both command in unison. Chitose's eyes go wide with shock as two luminous beings with bright white wings rise from their backs. Belldandy's appears to be riding on some sort of tornado, while Peorth's seems to emerge from a tangle of thorny vines. The two blonde entities glance to her and wink. She returns the gesture with a shy wave.

The surprises do not stop for the apartment manager. The two goddesses and their angels begin to sing, the melody of which touches her soul directly. _This is the most beautiful song I have ever heard!_ She closes her eyes and puts her hands over her heart. She senses more than sees that she is standing in front of a tunnel of light. Vaguely, she can tell that there are four others with her, beckoning her to follow. With the calming influence of the song washing over her, she does as they request.

XXX

Urd blinks and looks around. She finds herself exactly where she expected to be, in a cave. The other four are also here. The tall persocom, Zima, looks around in wonder.

"It actually worked!" he exclaims. He looks down to his smaller companion, who is looking around with a big smile on her face. "Careful, love, your face may get stuck like that!"

"Be serious!" retorts Dita after punching him in the arm.

The silver haired goddess snorts in laughter. "Ok, Peorth said that there is a building we need to find. It should be in the middle of the valley outside the cave." She glances down at Ms. Hibiya. "You need to especially be careful, I'm afraid that you may get overwhelmed by this." She puts a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Please let Skuld or me know if you start to feel like this is too much."

Chitose looks up into the goddess' violet eyes and smiles. "Please, do not worry about me, we are here for my daughter," she replies, her voice full of determination.

Urd nods in acknowledgement then waves towards the mouth of the cave, indicating to her companions that they should follow. As they step out into the daylight, they can see the building Peorth spoke of. It, along with the cliff walls surrounding it, are a lot closer than what had been described to them. A pang of worry strikes the goddess, and she hopes that they are not too late.

After a few moments, the group is on the ground and approaching the building. As they get near, Urd can see decay starting to set in, as if the building were aging at an accelerated pace.

"Do you hear that?" comments Zima as he stops and cocks his head at an odd angle.

Everyone stops and holds their breath for a second. On the gentle breeze running through the valley, they can hear a soft, shrill wailing sound coming from the building. "Could it be Freya?" comments Dita.

To Urd, it sounds vaguely familiar. "Come on," she says, urging the group forward. They will know soon enough. The wailing sounds gets louder as they approach. A moment later, Skuld breaks out in a full on run, Chitose following in hot pursuit. Urd watches for a second before it registers finally what is making the noise. She too starts to run, followed by the two persocoms.

Having trouble keeping up with the mortal woman and her sister, she watches as they round the corner of the building and disappear from sight. The wailing is much louder now, stirring instincts in her that she had only discovered just under a decade before. She skirts the edge of the building where she lost the other two, and finds them huddled together, holding something.

When she finally reaches the pair, Urd notices that the wailing has stopped. Skuld gives her sister a worried look, then takes a step back from Chitose, revealing that she is holding something. Closer inspection reveals what it is.

A baby.

Its short, platinum hair and chocolate brown eyes immediately reveal its identity. "It's ok, Chi, mama's got you, shhhhh," coos Chitose to the baby as it reaches up and strokes her cheek. A single tear streaks down her face.

Skuld looks to her older sister. She also has tears in her eyes. "Do you think we're too late?"

Urd shakes her head. "No, not yet, but time is shorter than I expected."

A rumbling in the ground punctuates her statement. The two goddesses steady themselves against the building until it passes. Chitose rocks unsteadily, but catches herself, then sits down in the grass while still cradling the child.

"Let's go, everyone," says Urd as the shaking passes. "We need to hurry!" Three in the party comply.

"Urd! Ms. Hibiya isn't getting up!" cries Skuld.

The silver haired goddess looks back and sees that Chitose has not moved from her spot. Skuld is trying to get her attention waving her hands and making weird faces, but is getting no response from the apartment manager. "Dammit, I was afraid of this," says Urd in frustration. "We don't have time, Skuld, just leave her. We'll get her on the way out."

Skuld looks down at the mortal, who is still rocking the baby and comforting it, then reluctantly complies with her sister. The group rounds the corner and finds the entrance to the building. As they are about to enter, Zima interrupts. "I'm sorry, but I am curious. Why did Chitose give up?"

"She didn't give up, she is just a little lost," replies Urd as she reaches for the door. "It's difficult for a mortal to process this. Quite frankly, we were expecting that it could happen, and hoping it wouldn't." She looks over to Dita. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," is the reply.

She opens the door, and Dita rushes in as if she was breaching a building like a member of a SWAT team. Urd follows in the same manner. Looking around, the goddess and the persocom see no trace of their possible opponent. Nodding in satisfaction, Urd beckons for the rest to enter. "Ok, you guys know what to do, we'll look around."

XXX

As he enters, Zima appraises the inside. Quite frankly, it's a mess. On the ground in front of them, he can barely see the floor itself through all the cables that are lying around. There are two racks of what looks like servers on either side of the row they are standing in front of. Half of them appear to no longer be running. _Is this what everyone's soul looks like on the inside, or is it because of her origin?_

A light tap on his should breaks him from his thoughts. Skuld hands him a disconnected cable and says, "Might as well start here."

He nods and takes the cable and connects it to a data port on his left side. He then extends one of his cables from his right and plugs it in to the nearest system. In theory, he should be able to detect which cables go where by analyzing the response. The group had hoped that Ms. Hibiya, being the girl's mother, would instinctively know where to plug things in. However, since she is seemingly incapacitated, this was plan B. It was going to be tedious, but it was the only way other than blindly plugging things in and hoping it works.

As he confirms that the data is not compatible, he disconnects from the server and connects to the next port. When that one also does not match, he starts to methodically work his way down the rack. Meanwhile, Skuld sets about trying to organize the cables in some way to aid them.

As he works, Dita comes up beside him. He glances down at her as he moves to the next port. Her eyes are darting back and forth, looking for any threat that may present itself. "This is so cliché," she mutters to herself.

"What, is it too quiet?" he asks with a smirk. Before she can answer, his attention is drawn to the port he just plugged in to by a small, almost imperceptible electrical jolt. "I think I have one," he says as he monitors the data going back and forth. Satisfied with what he is detecting, he removes his cable. "Here goes nothing," he deadpans as he removes the one he is testing and plugs it in.

Almost immediately, they all feel the ground shift slightly, causing Dita to fall against Zima as he steadies himself against the rack. On the other side of the aisle, Skuld is doing the same.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

The trio's heads all snap up at the shrill voice that comes from above. Floating in the air is an exact duplicate of Chi, clad in a black, ruffled dress. "Well, that's rather inconvenient," quips the tall persocom as the apparition that could only be Freya turns and starts to rush at them.

XXX

In an instant, Dita shifts from search mode to defense mode. Calculating her target's descent, she determines the best time to intercept. She jumps up to meet Freya half way, flipping as she goes, landing a wheel kick into the chest of their attacker. The platinum blonde apparition's trajectory takes a ninety degree detour as she flies down the aisle and crashes into the wall. Dita nimbly lands on her feet and looks at Zima and Skuld. "Keep working, I'll take care of her."

Unfortunately for the small persocom, taking her attention away from her target proves to be ill advised when she looks back. Instead of seeing Freya still crumpled on the floor, she finds herself staring into chocolate brown eyes. "Well, that was stupid," she admonishes herself.

"You can say that," deadpans the platinum blonde doppelganger, the corners of her mouth curling up in a menacing grin. Before Dita can react, Freya slams both of her palms into the persocom's chest, sending her flying in the opposite direction. Unable to block or dodge, but expecting the attack, she is able to control her body, turning in the air. When she hits the wall, her feet are underneath her, and she springs off of it back towards her attacker. Upon impact, she rolls over the top of Freya, grabbing hold and slingshotting her back down the aisle, through the wall, and out of the building.

This time Dita's attention does not waver. Immediately, she jumps through the hole in hot pursuit. Locating Freya, she slams into her with both her fists. The platinum blonde retaliates, grabbing hold of the smaller persocom. They grapple for a moment, before Dita succeeds in hooking Freya's arm. With a slight shift of her center of balance, Dita tosses her attacker to the side, getting her further away from the building. She maintains her defensive stance as Freya stands and stares back at her with hate in her eyes. "Urd! Now!"

From behind, a bunch of chibi-Urds jump out from their hiding places in the server racks, through the hole and into the daylight, reforming into the full sized silver haired goddess. Before Freya can react, Urd raises an arm above her head, spreading out her fingers as she prepares the spell.

"DEPTH CHARGE DESCENT!"

The platinum blonde has time to look up and see a beam of light come down and slam in to her. Dita watches in awe as a huge explosion engulfs her assailant. For a moment, there is nothing but light and a howling wind, causing the persocom to cover her face and eyes while the air screams around her. As everything dies down, she lowers her arm and sees a large crater where Freya had been just a moment before.

Their strategy was simple. They were gambling that Peorth's previous ineffectiveness had been a result of the weak spell she had used before. The first class goddess certainly had more powerful spells at her disposal, but she had to hold back in order to keep the collateral damage to Chi at a minimum. So they had decided their best plan was to get the building's protector outside so that Urd could hit her with the depth charge. With the area clear, Urd has no such limitations.

The goddess and the persocom both warily approach the smoldering crater left in the spell's wake. Upon reaching the edge, they find no trace of their platinum haired attacker.

"That was…surprisingly easy," comments Urd.

Dita gives her partner a withering look. "Famous last words," she replies sarcastically.

As if punctuating the statement, the ground starts to violently shake. "No way!" exclaims Urd as the center of the crater starts to heave upwards. From the top of the growing mound, two hands appear, then arms. The head and body follow. Much to Dita's chagrin, Freya seems unfazed. Finally free, the platinum blonde floats up above the duo. The persocom notes that the eyes of the rising apparition are closed as she ascends. When she does open them, rather than the normal chocolate brown, they are completely red.

"She looks pissed," comments Dita nonchalantly.

"The other one should have told you that you would have no power over me here," says Freya, a slight smirk forming on her face.

Dita jumps back as the apparition unleashes an electrical storm down upon them, barely avoiding the attack. Urd is not so lucky, taking the full force of it. She lets out a blood curdling scream as yellow electricity flows over her like rain. The persocom rushes in and jumps towards their attacker in a desperate attempt at distraction, but is hit full force with another lightning strike, sending her flying back and into the wall of the building. Urd's screams quiet as she loses consciousness and falls to the ground. Only then does Freya let up on her attack. She looks back to Dita menacingly.

Assessing the situation and finding few alternatives, the persocom jumps back into the building through the hole. Rushing in, she skids to a stop in front of Zima and Skuld, who have been making some progress in her absence.

"It's no use, we can't stop her!" exclaims Dita. "We've got to get out of here!"

Skuld looks at her and shakes her head. "We can't leave her like this!"

"Dita my Queen, love of my life, we have to finish this," adds Zima with a smile.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can hold her off!" replies Dita, who is feeling a twinge of fear for one of the first times in her life. If the goddess could not stop Freya, then how was she going to be able to? She hears their attacker enter through the hole behind them, and turns to face her again.

XXX

There are two, conflicting feelings that Chitose Hibiya is experiencing right now. On the one side, she is completely lost. She was been warned of this possibility. A human entering another human's soul was almost completely unheard of. Belldandy and Peorth were originally against it, but she insisted and won out. Her insight is needed to help restore her daughter, and she was determined to do it.

However, seeing the baby brought all the feelings of regret over not being able to bare children herself back to her. Feelings she had locked away when her husband had presented her with their older daughter, Freya, the first Chobit. Now, those feelings have overwhelmed her, consumed her, and paralyzed her.

Yet, through it all, Ms. Hibiya picked up the baby and felt unbridled joy when she comforted her. The infant Chi's touch sent shockwaves through her body. She realized that this is what it is _really_ like to be a mother. To hold, cradle, and protect another life, regardless of how it was created. As the baby coos happily in her arms, Chitose sings a lullaby her mother sang to her when she was a child.

_Sleep, little pigeon, And fold your wings, _

_Little blue pigeon With velvet eyes; _

_Sleep to the singing Of mother-bird swinging _

_Swinging the nest Where her little one lies. _

_Away out yonder I see a star, _

_Silvery star With a tinkling song; _

_To the soft dew falling I hear it calling _

_Calling and tinkling The night along. _

_In through the window A moonbeam comes, _

_Little gold moonbeam With misty wings; _

_All silently creeping, It asks; "Is he sleeping _

_Sleeping and dreaming While mother sings?"... _

_But sleep, little pigeon, And fold your wings, _

_Little blue pigeon With mournful eyes; _

_Am I not singing? See, I am swinging,_

_Swinging the nest Where my darling lies._

As she finishes the song, a shadow falls over her. In her arms, Chi notices as well, and turns to see where it is coming from. Chitose looks up and sees a tall man approaching them. With the sun to his back, the shadow obscures who it is. Despite this, the baby seems to recognize him. As he approaches, she starts to squirm and reach out. Ms. Hibiya blinks, trying to make out anything recognizable.

"Ms. Hibiya?"

The answer to who it is comes in an instant. As the baby laughs in her arms and reaches toward the person in front of her, she says his name. "Mr. Motosuwa?" Hideki squats down in front of her and smiles. Chitose blinks in confusion. "But how?"

"I'm not quite sure myself," he replies as he looks down at Chi with a puzzled look. She also recognizes him, and is almost fighting her mother now to get to him. A broad smile forms on his face, the realization of the identity of the infant finally dawning on him. "Can I hold her?"

"No," she replies forcefully and turns away from him, causing the baby to start crying. She instantly regrets it. He was Chi's 'One just for me', wasn't he? Inside of her, a war is raging. In her heart, she knows where Chi belongs. Hideki is her one just for her and he is completely devoted to her as well. Together, they will get through this change and prosper, of that she has no doubt. But at the same time, Chitose has always had a way to keep tabs on her daughter. Her computers kept track of her movements, and notify her of any anomalies. Outsiders might consider this stalker like behavior, but she justified it because Chi was still naïve, and vulnerable…

And still a persocom.

The reality that none of that is true any longer hits her like a ton of bricks. Even before she became human, Chi had blossomed into an independent girl with her own wants and dreams. Chitose denied it to herself that it was happening, even after they left the apartment complex so that Hideki could attend college.

As she comes to these realizations, she understands something else as well. Chi's place is with him, not her mother.

Chitose turns and offers the baby to Hideki. Chi smiles and giggles and reaches for him as he gently takes her into his arms. Holding her close, a soft glow envelopes them. He stands and shifts the baby in his arms so that she is facing her mother. Together, they both look down at her. "Ms. Hibiya, Freya needs you right now," says Hideki.

Chitose gasps as she looks up at him. "How do you know that?"

"Ok," he admits as he shrugs his shoulders, "this is really weird because I have no clue how. I just do." Hideki looks her straight in the eyes. "Freya is at war with herself. Right now, she thinks what she is doing is right, but what she is really doing is hurting Chi."

Looking back at him with a critical eye, he seems to be repeating this from memory more than knowing what he is saying. Then, a flash of insight hits Ms. Hibiya. "Is it because Chi was turned into a human?"

"I'm not sure," replies the tall man. "I was told to pass this along to you; in order fix her, you will have to destroy her."

As he finishes, the glow around them intensifies. "Wait! Don't go!" she pleads with them. "I don't understand!" Chitose shields her eyes as they begin to fade from sight.

"You will," he replies as they disappear entirely.

Confused, the apartment manager stands and moves towards the door. The only way she is going to find her answer is if she finds her daughter.

XXX

_If we make it through this, I am punching Zima straight in the mouth._ These are Dita's thoughts as she flies through the air after receiving a fist to her face courtesy of Freya. The way things are going, she will not get that chance, though. Since Urd went down, she has been on the receiving end of the blonde fury's rage, and is losing, badly. The brown haired persocom was giving as well as she could, but her calculations always came up with the same answer. This is Freya's world, that's where the control lies, and she will lose. Still, her mission so far has been successful. The platinum blonde's attention is focused squarely on her, allowing Zima and Skuld to continue their work.

She wishes that they would hurry, though. Progress is slow and tedious. Dita calculates that at the rate they are going, it will take hours for them to complete the job. She also calculates that she will not last anywhere near that long at the current pace of the fight. There is one trump yet to be played, but she needs to get close for it.

Slamming into the wall with enough force to leave a dent, Dita falls forward onto her hands and knees. Immediately, she springs up and assumes her fighting stance. Expecting an immediate follow-up attack from her adversary, the petite persocom is surprised when it does not come. Glancing back to where she was moments before, Freya is not where she is supposed to be. "Dammit," Dita curses as she looks up and around in vain for her attacker. _Could she be going after the others again?_

Worry strikes her, and she rushes around the corner to find Zima and Skuld still hard at work reconnecting cables. Freya had made a number of attempts to interrupt their work, but Dita had always been able to interject herself before it could happen. Breathing a slight sigh of relief, she approaches the duo, all the while her eyes scan for any trace of the blonde menace.

"Hail the conquering hero?" quips Zima and he plugs in another cable and smiles.

"Yeah, right, care to swap places with me?" replies Dita with a roll of her eyes. She glances around at the servers and is surprised that they are ahead of where she computed they would be. "You are progressing at a higher rate than I calculated."

"Yeah, well, it's a process of elimination," says Zima. "As we succeed, the number of candidates for the remaining connections start to dwindle." He smiles down at the petite persocom as she again looks around for Freya. "So, I take it that it's not going too well for you?"

Dita snaps back and focuses on her partner. Per usual, he has a penchant for stating the obvious. "I'm getting my ass kicked," she replies in exasperation. "Her place, her rules." The small persocom looks over to Skuld. "I don't suppose you can help?"

"Well, usually I would start taking things apart and building machines that could help," replies the raven haired goddess. "But I don't dare do that here because I don't know how it will affect Chi." She toes the ground a little in embarrassment. "And I don't know any good attack spells, yet."

"Not that it would matter, anyway." Sighing to herself, Dita looks around again, expecting an attack to come at any time. Freya's disappearance is a little unnerving, so she starts to walk down the aisle away from the duo. She stops at the end and looks in either direction. Still no sign. "Maybe she figured out we are trying to help?" she muses to herself.

"Well, if she did, it took her long enough," says Skuld sarcastically from behind the petite persocom as she hands another cable to Zima. "I mean, why didn't we just explain to her what's going on in the first place?"

Dita glances back over her shoulder at the goddess. "Yeah, like she gave us a chance," she replies. The petite persocom could understand, though. Freya is Chi's protector, in the same way that she was Zima's protector. No quarter would be given to any perceived threat. Even though her group is there to try to fix the damage that had been done before, to Freya they were invaders to be neutralized. It is similar to the way that a human body's natural defenses would attack anything foreign, regardless of its intent.

As Dita turns away from the goddess, she curses loudly when she comes face to face with the defender herself. Freya's now red eyes glow fiercely as she immediately reaches both hands out and grabs Dita by the neck with a strength that belies her petite form. While there was no way to actually choke the brown haired persocom out, a lot of damage could be done in that area.

Trying to keep her wits about her, Dita reaches up between Freya's arms, grabs a handful of hair from above her forehead, and yanks hard, drawing her attacker's head closer. With her other arm, she reaches out and slaps at the triangular port cover, and succeeds in opening it. As she feels the servos in her neck strain against the pressure Freya is exerting on her, Dita reaches up and pulls out a cable from underneath her hair, then slams it into the open port. This is her last shot, and she needs to make it count.

Dita is relieved when her hacking programs begin their assault on Freya. Despite having a soul, the blonde still maintains the visage of a persocom, with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses. Her hopes start to perk up even more as the code she is streaming into her attacker slams through the first set of firewalls it encounters. Freya releases her grip and takes a step back from the brunette persocom, doing nothing about the connection that has been established. For Dita, this is the first sign that there is something wrong. The second is the smirk on the blonde's face.

Without warning, the flow of data between the pair is reversed. A duplicate of Dita's hacking program assaults her, slamming through some of the strongest firewalls in existence as if they are not there. Like an amoeba, multiple fingers spread out and start to tear away at the code that makes up her brain, causing her to convulse as she lets out a blood curdling scream. She hears Zima scream her name, but it does not register as she tries to fight a losing battle for her very mind. Peeling away layer after layer of her programming and consciousness, it finally exposes her base operating system functions, the code that keeps her alive. As the virus reaches for it, Dita has one last regret. _I never got to tell Zima how I really feel._

Dita hears a scream from someone behind the blond persocom before her own world plunges into darkness.

"FREYA!"

* * *

A/N: UHG! This took way longer than it should have! When I posted the previous chapter, I was about 90% done with this one as well. Then I had a birthday, then other things got in the ways. Gods above, it can be so frustrating at times! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you do, please do me the honor of leaving a review. I hate it when people say "I won't update unless I get xx number of reviews". I personally think that those types are not serious FF writers and are just looking for attention. If you enjoy the story you are writing, then all that should not matter. It does help to motivate me. :)

Speaking of, I generally do not respond to reviews in story, preferring to offer my thanks in person via PM. However, Matt is an anonymous reviewer, so I will first say thank you for taking the time to read my story! I also had confusion on Urd's eye color when I first started, partly because I am color blind. :) There are conflicting reports of what color her eyes are when you google "Urd Eye Color". However, the general consensus in the FanFiction community is that they are Purple, so that is what I went with.

Anyway, I have started the next chapter, for what that statement is worth. :) It will shed light on Freya's behavior.


	7. Everything is Gonna Be Alright

-7-

VOICE PRINT IDENTIFICATION CONFIRMED  
SUBJECT: HIBIYA, CHITOSE  
ATTACK MODE DISENGAGED

Freya blinks her eyes as they turn from red back to her natural brown. She shakes her head, not quite believing what she has just heard. However, her internal voice recognition has confirmed it multiple times. It had to be correct, there was no way for someone to mimic her mother's voice and not be identified as fake by her sophisticated systems. Still, she needs visual confirmation.

With the deathblow still poised to strike at the interloper she is connected to, she pauses to look to the source of voice. She sees a woman standing near by the building's entrance, a loving smile on her face. Instantly, her facial recognition software kicks in.

3D FACIAL RECOGNITION IN PROGRESS  
MAPPING KEY FACIAL FEATURES…  
MAPPING FACIAL CONTURES…  
3D FACIAL RECOGNITION COMPLETE  
IDENTIY CONFIRMED: HIBIYA, CHITOSE

"Mama?"

The woman identified as Chitose Hibiya smiles. "Yes, darling, it's me," she says in a soothing voice. She spreads her arms out, beckoning Freya to her.

She starts to go to her mother, but stops herself. Suspicion clouds her mind as she instead takes a step back. Ever since her sister became human, Freya knew the change had affected her as well. She still maintained the persona and the abilities of her former persocom self, but something else manifested. A voice inside her arose with a drive to protect her sister which bordered obsession.

It was almost seductive in its reasoning, causing her to override more logical actions, such as ascertaining the purpose of the interlopers before she attacked and tried to expel them. She knew the two persocoms that came, they had been sent before to attack Chi. The voice told her that no quarter should be given to these two, as they surely were here to do the same again. That seemed logical. The other two were obviously guilty just by their association with the first two, and also needed to be dealt with in the harshest way. After the vicious attack by the silver haired one, even though it did not affect her that much, it had convinced her to relinquish control to it. She might hesitate, it reasoned, and everything would be lost.

But now, confronted by her mother, the person she was programmed to love unconditionally since before her father gave her life, she takes back control.

"_What are you doing, she is in league with them!" _exclaims the voice in her head, the urgent tones in its inflection are unmistakable.

_We can't attack our own mother!_

"_It's a trick. Humans cannot dwell where we are."_

That seems logical, she concludes, almost to a fault. Only the magical beings that created the change should be able to do something like this. But still, the parts of her that remember balk at the mere suggestion of doing violence to this person. There were other contradictions as well. _How are those two persocoms here as well?_

"_They are crafty and powerful, they tricked your sister Chi into allowing this change, and now they've come to trick you."_

_I have to be sure, I cannot just kill her!_

"_You may not have a choice._"

Freya looks hard at the one claiming to be her mother. It felt right, why did the voice seem so insistent? "How?" she asks urgently of the one before her.

Chitose smiles. "The goddesses brought me," she replies.

"_See! See, I told you she was in league with them! Strike now!" _yells the voice in her head.

For the first time, she chooses not to trust it. "But, they did this! How could you help them?!" screams Freya.

Taking a tentative step towards her daughter, Chitose shakes her head. "They may have performed the task, but this is what your sister wanted."

The blonde persocom shrinks back away from her mother, causing her to cease her advance. "_It's a lie!" _shrieks the voice. "_Who would want to change into something like this?"_

Again, the logic seems sound, at least to her. However, to Chi, it may not have been so. Her sister had the desire to fully be with her 'one just for her' but could not due to a design decision their father made. Once upon a time, Freya has also chosen a 'one just for her', and also harbored those desires. Despite the issues involved with a relationship with that person, would she have made the same choice as Chi if the option had presented itself all that time ago?

"_Your judgment is being clouded," _chides the voice.

_Perhaps it is you that clouds my judgment?_ She detects a small gasp from the voice, and she smiles internally. It was the first time she has questioned it.

"_How dare you talk to me like that, if it weren't for me, we would be dead."_ The anger in the voice is palpable. _"They will betray us again, you will see."_

XXX

For a moment, Chitose can almost see the confusion in her daughter's eyes. It was almost as if she were fighting some internal demon. She had immediately noted the red eyes before she had screamed her name to get her attention. There was a fury in them that scared her. When they turned back to their natural brown, her features softened, and she could see the Freya she remembered.

Beside her persocom daughter, Dita was still standing, paralyzed in her place. She needed to get Freya to disconnect, and hope that no permanent damage was done. "Honey," she says in as soothing of a voice as she can generate, "you need to disconnect from Dita, you're hurting her."

Slowly, Freya turns her head and looks back at her captive. Again there is confusion on her face, like she is having an internal debate on whether or not she should follow her mother's instruction. The blonde persocom turns back to Chitose after a moment. "Why? She attacked me."

"Honey, she was defending the others," replies the apartment manager.

Freya's eyes glaze over for a second, another indication of the internal discussion she is having. _What could be going on here?_ A split second later, she replies; "They were trying to attack Chi, I could not allow them to do that."

From behind Freya and Dita, Chitose sees Zima. He seems to be sneaking his way towards them. _What is that boy doing?!_ She was stuck, if she called him out, it would ruin whatever trust has been re established between mother and daughter. If she doesn't, and he hits her daughter, the same thing would happen. As she struggles over what to do, Zima make a motion towards Dita, then motions to his head and mimes removing a connector from it. It is a bad idea, she thought, but it is slightly better than some of the others. She takes a deep breath, readying herself for what might happen. "My darling, they are trying to _save_ you sister!"

Freya's eyes widen as Ms. Hibiya finishes her statement. In this moment of indecision, Zima uses the distraction to strike, grabbing Dita with one hand and reaching out with the other and quickly yanking his companion's connector from Freya's ear. Instantly, her daughter's eyes turn red again.

"Freya! No!" screams the apartment manager, but it's too late. The blonde persocom twists and lands a back kick into the chest of the tall one, sending him and his partner careening down the aisle between the server racks.

Turning back towards her mother, Freya's eyes are blazing with hate. "I knew you could not be trusted," she rants. "But no! You insisted we wait."

Ms. Hibiya has no time to process that her daughter sounds like she is gloating at someone as the blonde fury launches herself at her mother. Too late to do anything, the apartment manager braces for the inevitable.

"TSUNAMI RAMPAGE!"

Just before she reaches her target, a wall of water slams into Freya, sending her crashing into and then through the wall next to the door she is standing next to. Chitose, who had put her arms up to shield herself from the attack, feels herself being pulled away, down the back aisle to the other side of the building. She looks to see Skuld dragging her around the corner to where Zima and Dita are. The male persocom is sitting on the floor, cradling his beloved partner. A human shaped divot is in the wall above him. He looks up at the raven haired goddess with a wane smile. "I thought you said you didn't know any attack spells?"

"I said I don't know any _good _attack spells," replies Skuld in mock indignation. "Somehow I don't think getting a little water splashed on her is going to slow her down." She gives the female persocom a worried look. "How is she?"

Zima lovingly strokes her hair. That simple act fills Chitose with pride to know that at least two of her husband's other children have found happiness. "She's still with us," he replies. "But she'd down for the count."

Skuld looks to Ms. Hibiya. "We have to get out of here. Freya is out of control, and we are powerless against her."

"I can't," replies the apartment manager as she looks down the aisle where the goddess and the persocom were working minutes before. They had made admirable progress, but there was still a long way to go.

Skuld reaches up and grabs hold of her arm. "She's going to kill all of us if we don't leave now," says the raven haired goddess forcefully.

Chitose rounds on Skuld and looks her straight in the eye. "NO!" she screams in the deity's face. "Both of my daughters need me, so I am not leaving!"

Skuld bites her lip, considering her options. Shaking her head in frustration, she turns back to Zima. "Can you still walk?"

The persocom nods in the affirmative. "I have a headache, but am otherwise undamaged."

"Good, take Dita, collect my sister outside, and head back to the cave. That is the gateway back." Zima nods in the affirmative, then shifts to his knees to get up. The goddess and the mortal step over and assist the persocom to his feet with his precious cargo. He heads to the hole in the wall Freya made as a result of Dita's first attack.

Before he steps out, Zima looks back to Ms. Hibiya. "Save my sisters."

Chitose nods to him, then directs her attention back to the raven haired goddess who is peeking down the back aisle. "Do you have any ideas?" she asks without diverting her attention.

"There is something…off about her," replies Ms. Hibiya. "Not sure what it is yet, though."

"Yeah, something's definitely off," comments Skuld with more than a touch of sarcasm. Before Chitose can offer a retort, the goddess jerks her head back and plasters herself against the end of the aisle. "She's here," she whispers.

The apartment manager's eyes go wide as Freya calls out to her from the other side of the building. "Oh mother! Come out, come out where ever you are!" Chitose slaps her hands over her mouth to suppress the surprise at the malice in the voice of her daughter. Skuld inches over to the edge and peeks around the corner, exposing as little over herself as she can. At the other end the long row of servers, the blonde persocom is standing in front of the new hole that she had created courtesy of the goddess.

As Freya walks the other way, Skuld reaches out and grabs Chitose and drags her into the back aisle that their stalker has exited. "So, what's your plan?" whispers the deity.

"To try to talk some sense in to her," she replies. "From listening to them, it's almost like there are two of them."

Skuld gives Ms. Hibiya a skeptical look, then turns slides to the other side of their hiding spot and again peeks around the corner. When she sees Freya slowly making her way up the center, she quietly kneels down onto her hands and knees, dragging the apartment manager with her. "She's coming, we need to move."

Chitose nods and they both start to quietly crawl down the back aisle in the opposite direction of Freya's last known path. As they reach the middle, she starts to hear Freya muttering to herself.

"When I find her, I'm going to break her neck."

"She's our mother!"

"Shutup, fool! She is in league with them!"

Shifting slightly, Ms. Hibiya leans her back up against the rack, straining herself to listen to her daughter debate herself. This only seemed to cement in her mind that something is not right. As the mumbling passes on the other side of the servers, she cannot help but think she could almost detect a difference in the speech pattern of each personality.

"Hi Mom!"

Chitose screams as she feels something yank at her hair. Only too late, she realizes that there is a small gap in the equipment installed on the racks. Freya has somehow detected her, and now has her by the hair, trying to drag her through the opening. It feels as if her scalp is on fire as she struggles against the daughter who means to kill her.

Twisting her head and body, the apartment manager succeeds in turning herself to face the hole. She puts one foot against the rack and, along with both arms, pushes herself away, desperately trying to disengage from her daughter. Waves of pain rack her head as she unwillingly participates in the vicious tug-o-war. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, she feels as well as hears her hair start to rip from her skull. To panicky to mind the agony, she pushes even harder, finally succeeding in disengaging herself. Unable to catch herself, she flies back and smashes her head into the wall behind her.

Chitose's world spins around her as she tries to blink the cobwebs away. Skuld appears next to her. Everything had happened so fast that the goddess did not fully understand her plight until it was too late. Now she was standing over her, telling her something about getting her out of wherever they were.

Groggily, she looks up past the goddess and sees her daughter on top of the server rack, staring down at her with those evil looking red eyes and a menacing smile on her lips. Through the haze, she can still hear Freya. "Ahhhhh, did you bump your head?"

For an instant, the red eyes turn to brown. "Run mama!"

As Skuld starts to drag her towards the closest exit, she sees Freya's eyes turn red again. "I said shut up!"

"Freya!" exclaims Skuld, "you need to fight whatever has possessed you!"

As her faculties slowly return to her, she realizes that Skuld is on to something, but is slightly off on what it actually is. If she is right, the damage is irreparable. Slowly, Ms. Hibiya begins to understand that the only way to save Chi is to kill Freya. But how can she destroy one daughter to save the other? It is a choice that should never be asked of any parent.

"Oh, we are not possessed," replies the blonde persocom, her red eyes never wavering from her targets. "We have been together since the change."

A sudden realization comes to Chitose. Remembering a conversation she had with the goddesses before the group embarked on this quest, she pulls herself up and faces her daughter. Freya starts to rush at them as Ms. Hibiya screams.

"Chobits!"

The platinum blonde stops in mid stride. Slowly, mechanically, she straightens herself up and faces the duo. "Entered, password and voice recognition are confirmed," she intones in a much more robotic voice. "Standing by, master. Please give me your instructions."

Freya's eyes turn from red to brown. "Mama, I can't move, what are you doing?"

A tear streaks down Chitose's cheek. "I understand now, darling. Mr. Motosuwa told me that I needed to 'destroy her to fix her'."

"I don't understand"

"I didn't either, at first," replies the apartment manager as a tear streaks down the other side of her face. "Originally, I thought he meant I needed to destroy you to fix Chi, but that's not what he meant at all." Letting out a light sob, the tears begin to stream down her face, and her voice catches when she continues. "Initiate system shutdown and deletion of all data."

Freya's brown eyes go wide when the command is given. "Mama, don't do it, you'll kill me!"

The red eyes reassert themselves immediately. "Standing by to initiate system shutdown and deletion of all data, please confirm."

"Please mama! Don't do this!" pleads Freya when her eyes turn back.

Chitose can barely stop herself from breaking down. Steeling herself to what must be done, she locks her daughter with a loving look. "I have to, baby, in order to save you, I need to let go of what you were….." she feels another catch in her voice as she almost loses it again. Shaking her head slightly, she finishes; "and let you be what you can become." Finally, a wave of sadness overcomes her and she covers her face, no longer able to watch. "Execute," she says in a barely audible voice.

"No…!" screams Freya before the red eyes take over again. Across her irises, white streaks of light dance back and forth. After a moment, any life in them is gone. "Execution complete," says platinum blonde as the red eyes fade to brown.

Chitose lets out an anguished sob as she looks back to her daughter.

Freya blinks and shakes her head. When she does this, the persocom port covers on her head both fall off. "I, I'm alive?"

"Yes baby, you are."

Freya lifts her arms and examines herself, then looks to her mother in confusion. "I don't understand."

"I do!" exclaims Skuld from behind Chitose. She rushes up and examines the platinum blonde, a broad smile on her face. Finally, she crosses her arms across her chest. "You were incomplete. Your soul was not fully ready for the change, so only the parts that were ready made the transition. The result is that it literally created two souls; a human one and a persocom one, which was corrupted because of the change." She looks at Freya's mother. "But how did you know?"

Ms. Hibiya smiles at the deity. "The persocom personality's voice had a slightly unnatural sound to it."

Skuld furrows her brow in confusion. "Huh. I didn't notice any difference."

"Well, I am her mother," quips the apartment manager with a wane smile. She then turns to her daughter.

Freya's eyes are downcast, and her hands are clasped in front of her. Chitose reaches out and tips the girl's chin up so that she is looking at her. A steady stream of tears are flowing down her face. Just as they make eye contact, the former persocom rushes in and throws her arms around her mother. "I'm so sorry!" she wails and starts crying in earnest, managing through the sobs; "I… couldn't… control it." Chitose just holds her daughter, stroking her long hair lovingly.

After a few moments, Freya seems to recover some. She pulls away slightly so that she can look up at her mother. "What will happen to me now?"

"You cannot stay here, I'm afraid," replies Ms. Hibiya. "Chi needs to be able to live her own life, free of any interference from the two of us." Pulling her daughter close to her, she looks to Skuld for a lifeline. Hopefully she knew of some option that would work, as the alternative was almost too horrible for her to think about. A thought comes to her. "Can she come with me?"

Skuld's brows furrow for a bit as she contemplates this. She then shrugs her shoulders. "I don't see why not."

A bright smile crosses the apartment manager's face. She looks down at her daughter and pushes a loch of her platinum hair out of the way. "Does that sound ok to you?"

Freya nods, then buries her face into her mother's blouse. "I'm scared."

Chitose breaths in and lets out a cleansing breath, then squeezes her daughter lovingly. "We will conquer that together," she whispers.

A bright light envelopes Freya. As it increases in intensity, her features begin to dissolve until she appears only as a being of light. As her radiance increases, she starts to shrink and merge with her mother. As she does, Chitose also is bathed in light. Around her, a swirling wind starts to take shape, and as the daughter completely merges with her mother, she lifts off the ground and slowly levitates over the two rows of servers.

Skuld shields her eyes as she watches in fascination. "It's time for you to go," announces Chitose as the whirlwind around her picks up speed. Taking that as her queue, she quickly exits.

Hovering over the area, all the cables begin to come alive. With her eyes closed, Chi's mother begins to wave her hands as if she were conducting an orchestra. Slowly at first, the cables begin to find the ports they belong to on either side of the rows. When the connections are created, the radiance surrounding the apartment manager increases. As this happens, the cables move faster to their destinations. Her luminosity hits its peak as the final connection is made. With a final wave of her arms, the two rows of servers come together.

A bright flash.

Then nothing.

XXX

Kneeling on a pillow across the table from Hideki, Yoshi watches the boy as he sits in a trance. There was still a little time left before he would wake. The old man had been monitoring the efforts of the goddesses to save the newly formed soul, and is pleased that the resolution has finally presented itself to the mother. She had been the key all along. When she was diverted by the baby, the decision was made to send Hideki in to get her redirected. Now it was just a matter of waiting.

A robed figure steps up behind him, their face is obscured by a dark hood. Yoshi furrows his brows at the person's approach. "Early, you are."

"My humblest apologies. My previous task completed early," replies the figure as it bows. "So, he was successful?"

"Yes, delivered the message was. The girl, he protected." The elderly man turns his head to the robed form behind him. "Go you must. When he leaves, another task I will have for you."

The figure steps back into the shadows and fades from sight. Yoshi turns back to Hideki. It is actually slightly past the time he should be waking up. Impatiently, he takes his cane and pokes the tall man in the side with it. "Oy! Time wake up!" When there is still no response, the old man rolls his eye in annoyance and proceeds to whack is charge on the back of the head.

Hideki's eyes snap open, but he does not register that there is now a welt on the back of his scalp just above is neck. He looks at his hands, then frantically around the area. After a moment, he realizes Yoshi is there and looks at him frantically. "Where's the baby?"

The old man furrows his brows, feigning ignorance. "Ahhh, dreaming you must have been! A baby here, there is not."

Hideki does not seem convinced. "No! I was in a field next to a building, and Ms. Hibiya was there. How was she there? Don't ask me! But, she was! She had a baby, and the baby was somehow Chi!" He pauses to take a breath and the slight tinge of blue he had developed fades back to a more natural color. "I took Chi so that she could do something she had to do, but now I've lost her!"

Smiling, the old man puts a comforting hand on Hideki's shoulder. "A vivid imagination, you have. Here you have always been."

The tall man looks around, realizing for the first time that he is still in the nursery where he had fallen in to. "A dream?"

"Appear to be so, it would," replies Yoshi. He lets out a raspy giggle, then grabs the flowers out of the vase and hands them to the the younger man. "Oy! Must hurry! Transportation I have arranged."

Hideki tentatively takes the flowers and looks at the old man, confusion all over his face. "What are you talking about?"

"To the temple you must go. Only wake for you, she will."

The younger man blinks at the old man, still not understanding what he was inferring to. After a long moment, Hideki finally realizes that it was Chi. "But wait, how did you know?"

Yoshi smiles and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. "A gift this is, question it you should not."

Hideki nods and rushes out. After he leaves, the robed form reappears from the shadows. As the person approaches from behind, they fold back the hood that shrouds their face, revealing light blue hair with unequal length bangs and icy blue eyes. Her face is adorned with blue circles on each cheek, with three blue dots in the shape of an upside-down triangle on her forehead. "So why now all of the sudden, after all these years, you are trying to make amends?" asks the valkyrie Lind.

Yoshi reaches into the folds of his robes and removes a small chain. On the end of the chain is a gold medallion with a bluer than blue sapphire at its center surrounded by engraved runes. The old man fingers the gem lovingly. "Much have I to atone for. A small step this is," he says solemnly.

An awkward silence comes between the two as they watch Hideki get into the waiting taxi. Lind is the one to finally break it. "And what of the mortal, Chitose Hibiya? We cannot leave the soul fragment inside her."

A sly smile crosses the old man's lips, reminding the valkyrie of a cat that had just eaten the neighbor's canary. "Already taken care of, that is."

Lind sighs heavily. "So what is the task you mentioned?"

Yoshi turns to the goddess, locking her in with his single eyes. "Accompany him discretely. Ensure he arrives safely to the temple, you must. Reveal yourself, you should not." He turns away from her and waves his hand dismissively as he heads back into the nursery.

Lind bows deeply before she departs. "It will be done you say, Daitenkaicho Tyr."

XXX

It takes just over thirty minutes for the taxi to get Hideki to the Tariki Hongon temple from where he was. He fidgets nervously throughout the trip. What would he find when he gets there? Will the flowers help in any way, or was Urd just messing with him? He had been convinced throughout his quest that they would, but his experiences with the old man now made him doubt it for some reason. The dream in particular tipped the scales for that. While Yoshi had insisted it was a dream, he was still not convinced. It felt so real, like an out of body experience. And the things he somehow knew and said, no way could he have come up with that on his own.

As they pull up to the stairs, the tall man does not even wait for the car to stop, bolting out and up the steps. When he reaches the top, he somehow remembers that he did not pay the driver, and turns to go back. He stops short when he sees that the taxi has disappeared. He ponders this for only a moment, then turns and rushes down the path to the temple residence.

When he throws open the door, he is stopped by the angelic form of Belldandy, who is hanging up a rotary phone that is sitting on a table next to the door. "Oh! Mr. Motosuwa! I was not expecting you here this quickly."

Without preamble, he barges in and shoves the flowers into the goddess' hands. "I found the flowers! Can these help Chi?!" he cries, his voice full of desperation.

Belldandy looks down at the flowers in her hand in surprise. She then smiles and looks back to Hideki. "Actually, Chi is much better," replies the goddess. "She is resting in my room right now. Please remove your shoes, then I will take you to her." She takes his hand and leads him down the hall.

Embarrassed at forgetting to do so, he slips out of his footwear and then follows Belldandy down the hall. As they walk, Urd steps out of another room. Before she closes the door, Hideki catches sight of Ms. Hibiya laying on a futon on the floor. When the silver haired goddess turns around, Belldandy quickly hands her the flowers. "I believe these are for you?"

Urd stares at the flowers for a moment, then to Hideki, back to the flowers, finally back to the tall man standing in front of her. "He….actually found some?"

"It would seem so," replies the blue eyed goddess with a smile. She then turns and walks down the hall with Hideki in tow, leaving the flabbergasted second class goddess behind. When they reach a door with her and Keiichi's names on it, she gently slides it open.

Looking in, Hideki sees his beloved former persocom asleep in the same way that he saw Chitose earlier. "She is alright now?" he asks with a little trepidation.

"Yes," replies the goddess as she tips her head to one side and smiles. "We were able to fix her problem without the flowers."

Hideki smiles, nods, then enters the room slowly. Quietly, he pads over to the sleeping form as Belldandy slides the door closed and carefully lowers himself onto the futon. He snuggles up close to the blonde girl and reaches over with his right hand to stroke a few stray tangles of her hair out of her eyes.

As soon as his fingers make contact with skin, her eyes open.

"Chi?" she says, then slowly turns her head towards him. As soon as they make eye contact, the blonde persocom turns towards him abruptly and throws her arms around him. "Hideki! You came back for Chi!"

"Oh my god, Chi," exclaims the tall man as he returns the hug. "I thought I had lost you."

Chi pulls back slightly and frowns at him. "But Hideki did not believe Chi was Chi. Has Hideki changed his mind?"

Hideki lifts himself up to a sitting position, pulling the former persocom up with him. He puts both his hands on her shoulders and looks deeply into her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm so sorry. I was so stupid. All of this, what happened to you, was my fault." He leans in closer and touches his forehead to hers. "I promise I will never reject you again."

"Chi!" exclaims his girlfriend and she glomps on to him, causing the pair to fall backwards, causing the former persocom to land on top of Hideki.

As she lays there, she presses herself against him, her chest against his own. Hideki smiles at the sensation. _So soft, so supple, so…._

"REAL!" he exclaims as a gush of blood shoots out from his nose like a geyser. He pushes Chi off and starts rolling back and forth frantically on the ground like a mad man, screaming. "Oh my god it's true, she's a real girl and I touched her, I've never touched a woman's breasts before, at least a real woman's, I know I have touched hers before but they were not real then and now they are and they were so soft, I still can't believe this actually happened, it's …." Chi, thinking it was all in good fun, joins Hideki as he continues to thrash around and mumble incoherently.

As the pair roll back and forth on the floor next to each other, the door quickly slides open. Belldandy, who had heard the commotion and came back to investigate, stares down at the pair in shock. On either side of her head, Hideki's two laptops, whom she had gone to retrieve, sit and watch impassively. As Chi and Hideki compose themselves, the goddess whispers to the purple haired persocom. "Is this normal?"

"For them? Yeah, pretty much," replies Kotoko with a shrug.

As she sits up, the blonde former persocom frowns and rubs her stomach. "Chi has a funny feeling down here." Her statement is punctuated by the very distinctive and insistent growl of hunger than emanates from her.

Belldandy smiles as Hideki's stomach also lets out a sympathetic groan of its own. "It's a little late for lunch, but I can put together some snacks shortly!"

XXX

_Stalking his prey, he silently pads down the pads down the long corridor. His target was wily, like they coyote he sometimes watched in cartoons. Approaching the next room, he puts his back against the wall and sneaks closer to the entryway. The five years old boy runs his fingers through his hair nervously, then sneaks a quick peak around the corner to see if this most dangerous of game is within striking distance. _

_ "ICCHAN GO BOOM!"_

_ Nearly coming out of his skin, he feels two strong arms wrap around him, then lift him up into the air. "DAD!" he screams out as he realizes the hunter was instead the hunted, as usual. He feels himself get shifted into one arm, then a rough pair of knuckles start rubbing on the crown of his head. _

_ "NOOGIE NOOGIE NOOGIE!" yells his father as the boy struggles against the onslaught. The man, the sole center of the boy's universe, then takes him up and places him on his shoulders. This was his favorite spot in the world. _

_ Putting his chin down on the top of dad's head, he lets out an annoyed sigh. "Tell me again why we have to go to the hospital?"_

_ "Zima, I've told you, your sisters were born last night," replies his father. "It's time for you to meet them."_

_ "But I told you I don't want a sister, let alone two," replies Zima in a huff. _

_ The man chuckles, then gently takes his son off his shoulders and places him on the ground. Squatting down to the boy's level, he adjusts his glasses and smiles. "I'm sure you will love Freya and Elda as much as your mother and I already do." _

_ "Pfft," replies the boy. "Not likely."_

_ "Well, in any case, we will be heading home in about a week, so you should be happy about that!" _

_ "Yeah!" screams Zima excitedly. As his dad stands back up, the boy can't help but be happy about that bit of news. They had been staying at an inn for the past three weeks due to his mom being sick with the new babies. Sure it was a cool place, with lots of hiding places and a natural hot spring that his parents had been enjoying quite a bit. But he misses his friends, his toys, and most of all, his room. Giddy with the news, he follows his father into the common area, where the television is. _

_ For some reason, though, he decides it's not TV time. He looks back to his dad and is about to ask something when a voice booms out from across the room. _

_ "Mr. Mihara! I heard the news, congratulations!"_

_ Zima's father runs his hand through his thick mop of black hair and smiles at the elderly woman who is approaching. "Please, just Ichiro. And yeah, her water broke yesterday evening and the girls were born about three this morning." He then blushes a little. "I hope the mess she made in the hallway wasn't too much trouble."_

_ "Oh, pay that no mind, the haz-mat teams took care of it!" replies the old lady with a smile. A couple drops of sweat form on Ichiro's brow, before the woman starts laughing. "Kidding!" she says after composing herself. "We get special guests like you and your wife all the time with the hospital so close, housekeeping is well prepared."_

_ Mr. Mihara lets out a drawn out sigh of relief. In the momentary pause, the boy calls out to him, but Ichiro fails to notice. As the adults start to talk about other business that he cares nothing for, Zima decides to take matters into his own hands. Quickly, he steps back into the hallway and heads for the back door, a particular destination in mind. At the end of the corridor is the rear exit to the building. Through it, he can see what he wants. The playground._

_ He quickly slips through the door, across the parking lot, and over to his favorite thing, the sandbox. As he approaches, he sees there is someone already there. For as long as he has been here, there have been a number of children that have come and gone. The girl playing in there now was someone new. He recalls that very few girls ever came to the sand box, preferring the swings. That was fine with him, he didn't have much use for girls anyway. Why his parents decided to have two of them was beyond him. He sighs in resignation. She would be company at least._

_As she pushes the sand around with a toy bulldozer, Zima notices she is not wearing typical girl attire, instead having on a white t-shirt and blue jeans. Her black hair barely comes down past her ears, giving her a tom-boyish quality that, for some reason, he likes. _

_As he stands there, transfixed in place, the girl notices him and smiles. "Hi!" she says and waves. _

_Zima swallows. "Um, hi?" he replies, trying to return the smile, wondering why he was having trouble talking to her. After a slight pause, he manages to eek out a question he was not sure why he was asking. "Can I play with you?"_

"_Sure!" she replies, visibly excited. _

_He smiles and approaches. Something about her voice seemed to sooth him. As he reaches the edge, he sees that along with the bulldozer she was playing with, there are a couple of dump trucks as well. He immediately sits and starts to play with one of them, then jerks his hand back as if stung. "What's wrong?" asks the girl._

"_I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if I could play with your toys," replies Zima. _

"_Don't be so serious! I said you could play!"_

_The boy smiles at her, and picks the truck he had before back up. "By the way, my name is Zima," he announces._

_She looks at him with red eyes that seem to hypnotize him and smiles. "My name is Dita."_

XXX

The goddess Skuld stands in the doorway of what used to be her room and looks down at the two persocoms laying on a futon next to each other on the floor. Their eyes were staring off into space, with small white lines streaking across their irises. She steps into the room and looks down at the PersoSimulator v5.1 that was laying at the head of the mattress and peeks at a small monitor attached to it. In it, two small children of about five were playing in a sandbox, each one bearing a passing resemblance to the two figures that are attached to the device. She smiles and then reaches down to make a small adjustment.

Her work done, she turns and starts towards the door, but stops when she sees her older sister Urd casually leaning against the doorframe. "So, what script did you pick for them," she whispers.

Skuld rolls her eyes. "Urd, you don't have to whisper, they are not asleep."

The silver haired goddess waves her hand dismissively. "I was just trying to be polite." She looks at her younger sister expectantly. "So…..?"

"Oh, there is no script," she replies as she passes past Urd and into the hallway. "I started them off with a basic program based off a manga I read a long time ago. The rest is pretty much up to them. They have free will throughout. And when they die in the simulator, they will just wake up here and remember it all."

Urd closes the door and follows the raven haired goddess into the hallway. Before the younger sister can get away, she pulls her into a big hug. A little shocked, Skuld struggles a little, then relents. After a few awkward moments, the elder sister releases her grip and takes a step back, smiling.

"What was that for?"

The light smile turns into one of Urd's trademark smirks. "Finally, one of your inventions works the way it is supposed to!"

Skuld takes a step back and puts her hands on her hips in righteous indignation. "Shut up, Urd!" she exclaims. "At least I figured out what was wrong with Freya."

The bronze goddess steps past her raging sibling and waves her hand dismissively. "Whatever Squirt, I heard Ms. Hibiya was the one that figured it out."

"How would you know?!" screeches Skuld. "Freya beat you like the rented mule you look like!" She smiles as Urd stops, then turns around and glares at her. The raven haired goddess then delivers the coup de' grace. "And stop calling me squirt! I'm just as tall as you, and have bigger honkers!" To emphasize her point, Skuld crosses her arms low across her chest and lifts up her ample bosom for all to see.

"That's it!" screams Urd. She holds her arms out and black energy orbs form in each hand. "You'll pay for that one!"

"Bring it sister!" hisses Skuld as she calls forth two ocean blue colored globes of her own.

Without warning, all four of the energy balls wink out of existence, a whiff of smoke the only thing that marks their passing. Both goddesses stare dumbfounded at their hands for a moment, then freeze as they hear someone clearing their throat. In unison, they both turn to find their sister staring at them, a stern look on her face. One of the middle Norn's hands is raised up, her thumb and pointer are together as if she had just snapped her fingers.

"Belldandy!" exclaim the sisters in unison.

Skuld gulps. _She looks pissed._

The oldest sister steps up, next to Skuld. "Um, we….. we were just going to play… um… pattycake!"

"Y-y-y-yeah Big Sis, that's, um, right!" stutters the younger sister. They both start to mime playing the children's game as they look back to Belldandy with huge, innocent smiles on their faces. They stop when the blue eyed goddess crosses her arms across her chest as she continues to glower at the pair.

"Well, would you look at the time!" exclaims the silver haired goddess all of the sudden.

Skuld looks down at her watch. "Oh, that's right! I forgot I need to go….feed the fish!"

Both sisters turn and throw an arm around the other's shoulders. They then fast walk dance down the hall and out the back door. Standing on the porch, they both let out a sigh of relief as they disengage from each other.

"Man, I forgot how scary she can get ever since the children were born," comments Skuld as she steps off the top step and into the yard. "Well, better get going!"

Urd smacks her forehead in disgust. "Dammit, the TV is inside!"

The raven haired goddess chuckles. "Yeah, good luck!" she quips as she turns and heads towards the koi pond, thankful that she had enough power that she no longer required hot water as a travel medium.

XXX

_In the inky blackness, a small light dances. A woman stands, bathed in the illumination. As it bounces around, its mother, Chitose Hibiya smiles. She had no idea how things would go forward with the pair. All she knew was that her first daughter, Freya, was now with her and would be so for the rest of her life. That was all she needed right now._

_ The light comes to her and she takes hold of it, bringing it close to her chest. The warmth it is putting our fills her with joy. _

_ "What shall we do now, mother?" asks the glowing orb._

_ "A lot has changed since you left us," replies Chitose. "We will see many new things that have come to pass."_

_ "I would like that."_

_ The pair continues on. The mother and the light, comforting each other as they prepare for whatever lies before them. Still holding it, something seems to change. Ms. Hibiya removes it from its place on her buzom and looks it over. Somehow the illumination is not quite as intense as it was before. "What's wrong?! Why are you not as bright as before?"_

_ "Mommy, I feel strange," says the light. _

_ Chitose begins to panic as it begins to dim even more. She pulls it back to her and begins to run. The direction does not matter. She needed to find someone, anyone that could tell her what is going on. But there is no one here. She looks at it again. Its glow is now but a glimmer of its former self. "Please don't leave me!" she wails as tears start to stream down her face. _

_ She holds it tighter than ever, willing it to grow again, pouring every fiber in her being into the effort. Yet still, the once bright glow shrinks to but an ember. Through the haze of her angst, she hears a voice. _

"You will see your daughter again."

_ She pays it no heed as the light that was her first daughter finally goes out completely. She sobs into her hand and falls on the ground, all alone in the dark._

XXX

Chitose wakes up with a start, sits up and screams. "FREYA!" She falls over onto her side and curls into a ball, covering her eyes and the tears freely flow from her red eyes. Her daughter was gone. She could feel the hole that was created in her heart with her passing. In the dark, moonlit room, despair threatens to overwhelm her.

The area brightens momentarily as someone opens the door, enters, and then shuts the door again. It isn't until she feels a presence next to her that the grieving mother acknowledges the person by turning towards them. Lifting herself back up to a seated position, she looks into the azure eyes of the goddess of the house.

"Ms. Hibiya, what's wrong?" asks Belldandy, clearly concerned. It was obvious she could see Chitose was crying.

"It's Freya," sobs the mother as she latches on to the goddess' dress and buries her face into it. "She's gone!"

Belldandy puts her arms around Chitose and comforts her for a moment. As her crying subsides, she pushes the woman back and looks at her. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"I could feel her," starts the apartment manager, barely controlling the sobs that threaten to take over. "But then she started to fade." She reaches out and grabs the arms of the blue eyed goddess, tears and desperation in her eyes. "Oh my god! It must not have worked, she must have died!"

Belldandy looks deeply into the sobbing Chitose's eyes. "Please, allow me to see what happened." Ms. Hibiya nods her consent and the goddess' right hand starts to glow. She places it over the grieving mother's heart. She frowns, then moves it around, pressing in various spots. Closing her eyes in concentration, she cocks it to the side as if hearing some faint whisper. The goddess' hand starts to drift down, finally settling over the lower part of Chitose's abdomen. With a sudden intake of breath, Belldandy jerks her hand back, then up to join her other hand in covering her mouth. "Oh my!" she exclaims as a tear runs down her face.

Ms. Hibiya panics. "Oh my god, it's true, isn't it!"

Belldandy immediately reaches down and grabs hold of Chitose's hand, using the other to wipe the moisture from her own face. "No, I am sorry if I scared you, this is a tear of joy."

"What?" replies Ms. Hibiya as she blinks in confusion.

The blue eyed goddess squares to the mother and gives her a radiant smile. "You're pregnant!"

* * *

A/N: And thus ends this arc. I do not think this story is done, so I will not be marking this as completed. At this time, I do not have any new major arcs in mind, but a couple of on-shots have been bouncing around. Feel free to send ideas!

Timeline note: I have seen a number of fics that puts Chobits in the 2030's. While, based on the level of tech, I can understand that. However, if you really look at it, Its probably 2007 at the latest. I am not hugely familiar with Angelic Layer, but I have seen multiple sources put Ichiro Mihara's birthdate in 1969. He is 28 in Angelic layer, putting that in 1997. Chobits is a direct sequel to AL, and I think AT MOST, the gap is 10 years, hence 2007. If you care to discuss this, drop me a line.

And as always, READ AND REVIEW!

A/N2 (3/19/13) - I added a small sentance to clarify that Zima and Dita will eventually wake up when the simulation is over. Just wanted to clarify that point, Thanks to Thanos for pointing that out.


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